Lucky Number Seven
by KC-Chan13
Summary: "How am I? Well, for two months, I have to deal with seven guys. A pyromaniac, a sadist, a loner, two bitter twins, an idiot who thinks he's better than the rest of us, and the one who hurt me in the past. And not wanting my ex to know it's me, I've decided to cross-dress. Boy, I'm telling you; boxers aren't comfortable at all. So yeah, I'm doing fine. Just peachy." Sora x Kairi
1. Guilt Trip

Summary: "How am I? Well, for two months, I have to deal with seven guys. A pyromaniac, a sadist, a loner, two bitter twins, an idiot who thinks he's the best and the one who hurt me in the past. And not wanting him to know it's me, I've decided to cross-dress. Boy, I'm telling you; boxers aren't comfortable at all. So yeah, I'm doing fine. Just peachy," Kairi growled. "That time of the month?" Seconds later, he was seen rolling on the floor in pain, clutching his crotch."

Hi, my name is KC-Chan13 and I like warm hugs!

This story is loosely inspired by Ouran High School Host Club and Mulan. There are a few hints of other Disney movies like Frozen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tron, etc. It's meant to be humurous, romantic, a parody of shoujo manga/reverse harems maybe? LOL. Enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.**

* * *

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 01

**Guilt Trip**

"No."

"_Excuse me?_"

Kairi Sakashita pulled her lavender covers over her head, trying to ignore her sister's complaints and pleas. Namine barged into her room at freaking _four in the morning_ and woke her up just to ask her one question.

"I'll say it again: Kairi, please, will you take my place at the Service Centre?" she begged for the umpteenth time.

"Couldn't you wait until breakfast or something? Geez... go back to sleep," the redhead groaned, ignoring her sister's question.

Namine jumped on top of her sister and said in a baby voice, "I can't! The sky's awake, so I'm awake, so we have to play!"

"Go play by yourself," Kairi retorted in a slurred voice and pushed her sister off of her. The blonde fell off the bed, but stood right back up to jump once more on top of her "Elsa".

"...Do you wanna build a snowman?" she asked, still following the script of an all-too-familiar movie.

"No."

"Wow. First of all, you were supposed to give me that look that meant 'Of course I wanna build a snowman!', then I'd drag you out into our play room, where you'd do your ice bending thing. You're a crappy Elsa. Second of all, this is important. Like, really important. So- here, let me say it again- Kairi, will you take my place at the Service Centre?"

"Namine, shut up. Go back to sleep, I'll tell you in the morning-"

"It is morning."

"It isn't morning until I get up."

"No, I am not waiting that long. I need your answer right now!" the blonde exclaimed, pissing Kairi off even more by shaking her and jumping on the bed. It went on for a good ten minutes before Kairi grew immensely annoyed at her childish antics. Namine did this almost every morning since they entered high school to get her to wake up in the morning, it was weird to think that the redhead still wasn't used to it... and also still needed it.

"Namine, STOP."

"I won't stop until you say yes, sweetheart," she took hold of her twin sister's precious stuffed toys and started hitting her with them.

Angrily, the auburn-haired girl took her pillow, emerged from the covers and slammed it into the blonde's face. Namine fell face-first on the cold, hard floor and just lay there without moving.

"...Sis?" Kairi looked down at her sibling. "You okay?" She waited for an answer, or even a loud battle cry. However, there was none. "...Oh well. Back to sleep, then." She pulled her blanket over her head again and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to take over her.

Hearing this, Namine stood up and whacked the lump on the bed, "UM, HELLO? I could've been _dead_ and you don't even care?!"

"I'd be lying if I said yes," came the muffled answer.

The sunshine-haired girl sighed, "Alright. No more hitting or whatever. Cause, geez, that really hurt," she fixed her hair, then brought a hand to her face, checking for any bumps or bruises. "But no signs of bruises whatsoever," she smiled.

"What a shame." Her smiled vanished. With a straight face on, she grabbed the ends of the purple sheets and pulled them off of Kairi, who growled as if she were some kind of beast.

"How about... _some sunlight?!_" Namine pulled the curtains open, allowing the sun's rays to enter the room. Kairi hissed at the bright light and dug her face into her pillow.

"CLOSE THE CURTAINS."

"Not until you-"

"CLOSE THE DAMN CURTAINS, BARBIE."

"Okay, fine. I'll close them, but I need you to sit up straight first," the blonde instructed. Her twin obeyed, and sighed in satisfaction as the light slowly left the room.

"Thank you," she replied, rubbing her eyes. "Alright, I'm awake. So, what did you want again?"

"I need you to take my place at my job," she smiled. "Only for a few weeks."

Kairi sighed, "Why?"

"Kai, I work at a Help Centre, six times a week. And as thanks for helping out and being one of the hardest workers, they gave me a paid vacation to Radiant Garden. I need a break too, you know. The problem is... well," she rubbed her arm. "I have seven patients who each come about three times a week. They require a lot more work than the rest and if I'm not there for two months, their cases could get much worse."

"So... you want me to-"

"Help them solve their problems while I'm gone."

Insert awkward silence here.

"Hey, um, Nami?... ARE YOU INSANE?!"

Deal with seven and solve each of their problems? Kairi never was the best at helping people with their troubles. Heck, she couldn't even give decent advice; not even girl advice. Whenever she did, the situation just worsened. Her sister knew this, in fact, Namine knew how bad the redhead was with people.

"Aren't there other workers?!"

"Yes, but... you see, these boys-"

Kairi threw her hands up in the air, "And they're all guys! What're their problems, can't get a girlfriend? Ugh..."

"No. They're a lot more complex than simple 'girl problems'," she air quoted. "Please, Kairi?" the blonde asked, holding her hands together.

The redhead sighed, "Nami, you know how terrible I am when dealing with these things," she crossed her arms over her chest. "Remember when you asked me how to get-" the sunshine-haired girl gave her a look that perfectly read, "Don't you dare say his name", making Kairi gulp. "-He-who-shall-not-be-named to notice you? You ended up scaring him away, all thanks to me. Seriously, you want me to solve seven problems? Maybe even more? I'll make them worse, as always."

Namine remained silent. Her sister was right. However, she wasn't going to give up that easily. Kairi _had_ to do this, no matter what.

"Kai, it's seven guys. And their problems aren't that hard to fix, really," she said.

"Why can't you ask someone else?"

"I've been seeing these boys for almost a year now that they've all grown attached to me. I figured that since we're family and all, a bit of me can be found in you."

"How can that be? We're complete opposites."

That was very true. Kairi was known as the tomboy Sakashita for being tough and careless as well as having an interest in video games and sports. Although not the best at dealing with problems, she would still try her best to make everyone happy- even though her plans would usually end up in failure. Namine on the other hand, was the girly Sakashita. She was the definition of polite, dainty and charming and had a huge interest in fashion and makeup- the two things her sister couldn't care less about. She was known for being very good with people and could solve problems in no time, except the problems of her seven patients, of course. Despite this, they were very close and loved each other dearly.

"Yes, I know, but... we- uh, you see-"

"The truth, Namine. The truth." It was so easy to see through her lies.

The girly girl sighed, "Alright fine, nobody at the Centre wants to take my place because they all know how big their problems are... And they aren't exactly the friendly type..."

"Oh, yeah, that's nice, dump them all on me, would you?" she hopped out of bed and started walking away.

"Hey! Come back here!" Namine exclaimed. When she realized that Kairi wasn't going to listen to her, she ran towards her at full speed and jumped at her, causing the two to fall to the ground.

"Let go of me!" the redhead screamed as she tried to wiggle out of her twin's grasp.

"Not until you say yes!" she hugged her sister's legs tightly. Kairi hammer-fisted the floor furiously and tried to kick her way out of Namine's hold, but the latter just held on tighter. After about ten minutes, the redhead stopped her childish antics and turned around to glare at the blonde.

"Give up yet?" she grinned.

"I should be asking you that." She slammed her face on the floor.

"Oh, I'm never gonna let go... until you say yes." Kairi let out a cry of frustration. "They're seven boys, Kai. Seven; no more, no less."

"Seven is a big number."

"You know it's not."

"In my book, any number over one is a big number," she raised a finger. "One is one. Just one, almost nothing. Easy to get over. But then two, it's a party! Imagine having to eat two... hippos. That's a lot-"

"Kairi..." Namine sweatdropped. Her sister sometimes said the most outrageous things to prove her point.

"Look, sis, I'm sorry, but I really can't do it. Go ask someone else to do the job."

The sandy-haired girl frowned and slowly let go of Kairi's legs. She stood up and looked down at her feet with a somber expression on her face.

"You know... you can be really selfish at times. All I want is a little vacation; a break from all this hard work. But you're taking it away from me," a tear escaped her violet eye. "Forget I said anything. I'll return the plane tickets tomorrow."

"...Damn it, Namine." The guilt was killing Kairi.

Namine was born three years before the redhead, making her the oldest, and there was no doubt about the fact that she acted like one. She helped Kairi wake up every morning, she cooked for the two, she even took the time to prepare her younger sister's lunchbox every morning. She also did the typical house chores like sweeping the floors and washing the dishes. Kairi did the outside chores like raking the leaves and shovelling the snow, but her big sister obviously did more work, considering the auburn-haired girl's chores only depended on the weather. Namine worked hard every day of her life, it was only fair if she did something in return.

Once again, Kairi tried to fight the guilt slowly consuming her, but to no avail.

"Namine, wait," she sighed. "Okay, fine... I'll do it. I'll take your place." The blonde's frown turned into a smile in a heartbeat. The guilt-tripping plan worked! She cheered, then proceeded in pumping her fists in the air.

"Yes! Thank you, Kai! You're the best sister ever!" she hugged her tightly.

"Whatever," she said, not even wanting to hug back. "Hm, there is one slight problem though..." Namine froze. "What will I tell my boss?"

"Already taken care of."

"What?"

"I called him about two days ago and told him all about this. He was pretty chill about it."

"The truth, Namine."

"Okay, I might have lied. But who cares, he said yes, so it's all good."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Kairi smiled. "Well... I guess dealing with your patients wouldn't be so bad. And besides, it's one person at a time. It's not like we're all gonna live under the same roof, right?" she laughed.

"...Right."

Silence.

"Hey, you got what you wanted. Now get out. I'm going back to sleep."

* * *

**A/N: **Hope you liked it!

Questions? Anything I did wrong? Please let me know by reviewing! :)


	2. Kaito Okumitsu

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 02

**Kaito Okumitsu**

"Kairi! Come on, I'll drop you off at the airport!" Namine called out from downstairs, jingling her car keys.

Holding her luggage, the auburn-haired girl took one last look at her room, sighed, then bid farewell to her belongings. She wouldn't be seeing them for the next two months. She slowly closed her door and ran down the stairs, where she met up with her older sister.

"It's about time. Geez, you're so slow," Namine giggled.

Kairi wrinkled her nose. "Hey, shut up. _You_ don't have to leave town for the next two months," she sighed.

"Actually, I am, stupid. Radiant Garden, hello?"

"...Right," the redhead slapped her forehead. "Remind me again why I'm going to the one in Destiny Islands?"

"It's a lot better than the one we have here in Twilight Town. The Centre there is a lot nicer, bigger and I figured you'd appreciate going back home. I heard Destiny Islands became a lot more lively and welcoming and the sunsets are just as beautiful as we remember them," she smiled. "Oh, by the way, they have rooms in that Centre, so the person at the front will assign you to one. It's under your name."

"What the hell. You're crazy. The one here's fine."

Namine shrugged. "I thought it'd be better this way, so that you wouldn't have to wake up early every morning to take the train, then come back home late at night, wake up early and take the train, and yeah. Anyways, come on, you're gonna miss your flight."

The two walked out of their cozy little house and entered the blonde's white Audi R8 Spyder (one sexy-ass car). Kairi took one last glance at her home before Namine drove out of their parking space and into the streets of Twilight Town.

They stopped at a red light. "This is crap. So, so crap. I'm gonna cry. There won't be any sea salt ice cream there, oh my gosh. Might as well just make some with all the tears I'm gonna shed," the youngest of the two cried.

The eldest fixed her white sunglasses, ignoring the whistles coming from the teenage boys next to them, whose car had no roof as well. "Hey, it's gonna be all right. Call me whenever you feel like it, I'll help you out, okay?"

After driving for about twenty minutes, the two finally reached their destination. The two girls entered the building, both carrying some luggage.

"Hello, the next flight to Destiny Islands, please," Namine politely said.

The man at the counter handed her the ticket without a word and went back to doing who knows what on his laptop. The blonde turned around to give it to her sibling, who sighed sadly.

"I still can't believe you actually managed to guilt trip me into this," Kairi huffed.

"Hey, come on. I know these guys, and they're real sweethearts once you get to know them."

Puffing her cheeks, the redhead asked, "Really?"

Namine nodded.

"FLIGHT 0214 WILL BE LEAVING IN TWENTY MINUTES. ALL PASSENGERS PLEASE ENTER AND TAKE YOUR SEATS IMMEDIATELY."

For the umpteenth time that day, the younger Sakashita sister sighed, "Guess I've gotta go." She stood up to give her sister a hug.

"Love you, Kai. See you in two months. Have fun!" the older Sakashita exclaimed, earning a glare from Kairi.

"Hate you, sis. Don't forget, if anything happens to me, I'm blaming it all on you."

After that being said, she proceeded in taking her luggage and walking towards the entrance of the plane. She threw her bags on the rollers and started walking in the direction of the large engine before her. She turned around one last time to wave goodbye to her sister, who still stood at her previous place, and waved depressingly. Namine brought a hand to her lips and giggled, which irritated Kairi. Annoyed that she was taking too long, a rude passenger pushed their way through, causing the redhead to fall. Instead of getting up immediately, she just lay on the ground, refusing to get up.

"This... is real," she said in a hushed voice.

"Um, miss, are you alright?" a flight attendant asked, an eyebrow raised. Kairi didn't answer, and this time decided to stand up. She picked a seat next to the window and just sat there, looking straight ahead. People cocked their heads and gave her worried or scared looks, which just made her move her head to the side to stare right through their souls. They all shivered; those were the eyes of a dead man.

* * *

The flight lasted three hours.

And during those three hours, Kairi spent them playing the game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on her Nintendo DS. It helped her escape from the harsh reality that she was currently living in.

"No... NO. XION. WHY?" she silently sobbed. And by the looks of it, the video game world decided to turn on her as well.

"WE WILL BE LANDING SHORTLY, PLEASE KEEP YOUR SEAT BELTS ON."

Once the airplane landed, Kairi looked out to window. Her eyes met with the most beautiful, clear blue sky. With a rush of nostalgia, she ran out the door and skipped down the steps. She twirled around as if she were in some kind of Disney movie and inhaled the fresh, sea salt air. She looked at her environment, smiling. Namine was right; the town did indeed look a lot more lively and welcoming.

_Honk, honk!_

She turned her attention to where the sound came from, and noticed a black limo parked right before her. An old man in a black suit and grey hair got out of the car and approached her. Behind him, another man, this time young and with dark brown locks, was putting her luggage in the trunk.

"Hey!" she yelled at the brunet. "What the _hell_ are you doing with my-"

"Do you happen to be Miss Kairi Erusa Sakashita?" the old man asked, interrupting her. This drew everyone's attention and they all stared at the redhead.

"Um... yes?" she answered, embarrassed by all the attention.

"Please enter the vehicle, we will take you to your destination." He opened the door for her to enter.

"Uh... no, it's alright, I'll take a taxi-"

"I'm afraid not. Your sister, Miss Namine, already payed for this, you wouldn't want her money to go to waste, now would you?"

Turning red from being the center of attention, she hastily got inside and allowed the man to close the door for her. She looked out the window, admiring the scenery. Nothing's changed, she thought.

She was home.

The limo came to a stop and seconds later, the same man came back to open the door. Kairi stared wide-eyed at what was supposed to be Destiny Islands' 'Service Centre'. Yeah, Service Centre my ass, it looked more like some Disney World resort.

She turned to the man, "Um... I think you forgot to take a right or something cause this is definitely not wh-"

"Forgive me for interrupting you, but this is where Miss Namine has asked me to bring you, and I shall do as I am told." With that, he walked back into the vehicle and drove off.

She stood frozen in place.

_Namine, are you kidding me?_

The auburn-haired girl took out her phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?" the person on the other line answered.

"Namine."

"Oh, hey Kai-Kai," she said innocently. "So, listen. While you're there, mind buying me some Paopu fruits? I miss eating th-"

"No."

"Well, someone's on their period."

Kairi growled. "NAMINE, I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU. WHERE THE HELL AM I? WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE? YOU NEVER SAID ANYTHING AB-"

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

"Hang up on me, will you?!" the redhead snarled. She pressed re-dial on her phone.

_The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable. Please leave a message at the beep. BEEP._

"Go suck a dick."

She angrily hung up and buried her face in her hands. How could Namine do this to her? Maybe this was revenge for he-who-shall-not-be-named? She didn't think her sister could be so... mean. Sighing, she picked up her bags and entered the building before her. She walked past the automatic doors, only to be met with the most beautiful lobby she had ever seen. The walls were painted a sandy yellow, and the ceiling a pale blue, giving off that beach feel; she was in Destiny Islands after all. The floors were perfectly waxed and perfectly clean; not one spec of dirt to be seen. There was a fountain in the middle, designed to look as though beautiful, pearl white swans had water flowing out of their beaks. On both sides of the fountain, two curved staircases that lead all the way to second floor. Finally, to top it off, a crystal chandelier hung above, the sun's rays seeping through the window reflected against each piece.

Kairi stood right below the chadelier, mouth agape. When she snapped back to reality, she closed her mouth, blushing at how stupid she probably looked. She then walked over to the front desk.

The woman behind the counter was indeed very bubbly. She twirled a lock of her blonde hair around her index finger and giggled at almost everything the person whom she was talking to said.

"Uh, hi...?" Kairi awkwardly greeted. The blonde turned away from the guy she was talking to and focused all her attention on the guest.

"Hey there!" she answered cheerfully. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I... uh... Kairi Erusa Sakashita?" _Man, can you get anymore awkward?_

The woman whose nametag read "Rikku" flipped through a binder and read through the last page. "Kairi, Kairi, Kai- Oh, there you are!" she exclaimed. She turned around and picked a key hanging on a board on the wall.

"You have the penthouse on the highest floor!"

"TH-THE PENTHOUSE?" she cried out in shock.

"No I'm just kidding," she laughed. "This Namine chick reserved this huge beach house that's actually kinda like a penthouse mansion thingy by the ocean for you. We own it and it just recently opened up, lucky you got first dibs, am I right?" She threw the keys and a card with some writing on it at Kairi, and continued talking to her friend.

Kairi unfolded the piece of paper.

_**1182 Oathkeeper avenue**_

A bit disappointed that she wouldn't be staying in this luxurious hotel, the redhead walked out the door and into the familiar streets of her childhood. She passed by a little corner shop, which used to be her favorite place to get snacks and candy as a kid. She passed by her old house and smiled at it, greeting the current residents who were outside gardening. She walked down the street with a huge smile on her face, thinking back on those days.

"1174... 1178... Ah! 1182- _holy shit._" Just like at the hotel, Kairi stood mouth agape before the Peak 8 Summer Penthouse. She took out her cellphone and quickly dialed her sister's number, who picked up this time.

"Hello?"

"..."

"Helloooo?"

"..."

"I'm hanging up."

"NO WAIT."

"Geez, why'd it take you so long to answer? Well anyways, what's up?"

"The penthouse."

"What? Oh! Isn't it lovely? It's just to make up for all this. I felt a bit bad about making you go, so..."

"You're the best."

"Earlier you told me to go suck a dick."

"Psh, no I didn't."

"Right. Well, I have a Disney movie to continue watching, if you don't mind."

"I love you."

"Gross." And with that, the line went dead.

Kairi shoved her cellphone in her pocket and walked towards the gorgeous penthouse, which would be her temporary home. The exterior blended stone, marble, steel and glass; a unique combination that gave off a safe and secure atmosphere. The windows were perfectly clean and clear of any dirt, and flowers of all sorts of colors were all over the front yard. Inside, the walls were painted a warm, sandy color, which looked a bit out of place alongside the oddly shaped furniture. In all, there were three floors: the kitchen, the living room, the dining room and a bathroom were on the first floor; four bedrooms, a movie room and two bathrooms were on the second; and lastly, four other bedrooms and two other bathrooms were on the third.

The copper-haired girl chose a room on the third floor, the only one with a balcony. It gave her a perfect view of the island. She started unpacking her things; clothes, _girl stuff_, her laptop, video games, consoles and much more. When she reached the end of her bag, she flipped it upside down, just to make sure it was empty, and a light purple notebook fell out. Curious, she flipped it open.

**CHARACTER PROFILE**

_Do your best! - Namine_

A series of beeps later, someone on the other line answered.

Not with a "Hello?" but instead with a "Hey if Elsa died, Olaf would melt."

"What the- DUDE, DON'T SAY STUFF LIKE THAT."

"Sorry. So, what do you want now?"

"Character profile?"

"Oh, that. Just a little thing to help you out. It has information on each boy staying there with you. I dug up a picture of each of them, too. Not full body, just up to their shoulders."

"Wow... that's really cool of you. Thanks."

"No problem. Is that all? Can I hang up now?"

"No, let's go through the pages together."

**Axel Fujiwara: A flirty redhead who can't seem to take anything seriously. He thinks life is just full of fun and games, which is mainly why he makes unnecessary jokes at the wrong times. Axel gets distracted very easily, people often question if he has ADD or something. He has always had a scary interest in fire, even when he was five years old. His grandfather seems to be the reason why.**  
**Problem(s): he is addicted to setting things on fire.**

Underneath that description was a picture of him. Axel had flaming red hair that rivaled even Kairi's. He had two tattoos shaped as teardrops under his striking green eyes.

"He doesn't sound so bad. I think it'll be fun having him around."

**Vanitas Irino: A black-haired boy who used to be happy and cheerful all the time, until his parents died in a fire. He hates Axel due to the redhead's obsession with the element, only reminding him of the night those flames took away his parents' lives. If his parents got hurt, everyone should get hurt, too. He plays the piano, but can't play without the night of the fire rewinding in his head.**  
**Problem(s): he has depression and enjoys watching people suffer.**

This boy had spiky, jet-black hair and pale skin that made his gold-colored eyes pop out.

"I think I'm gonna cry... His past is so sad."

**Riku Miyano: Riku keeps to himself. He was always rejected by people. Everyone thinks he is cold and heartless, since he hardly ever talks to anyone. He gets annoyed very easily, and if provoked, the one who provoked him can end up with a bloody nose, or maybe even a broken arm.**  
**Problem(s): he is anti-social.**

Riku had long, silver hair and the most gorgeous sea green eyes.

"Hey, I remember Riku! He always had this blindfold on in middle school to avoid eye contact with people. He'd say stuff like, "I'm surrounded by darkness." Weird guy," she examined his picture more. "Those eyes doe. I can stare at them all day."

**Roxas Uchiyama: The sarcastic twin. He and his brother, Ventus, have attitude problems, usually resulting them in getting into trouble. He is very bitter and doesn't trust anyone at all. Since he never allowed himself to hate openly in the past, his hatred took over him. He used to be positive, silly and selfless, but now he's the opposite.**  
**Problem(s): his hatred took over him.**

This one has spiky blonde hair and eyes as blue as the Destiny Islands sky.

"Woah, that's really sad... No wonder you always tell me never to keep my thoughts to myself," Kairi said. "But look at that face. Dayum, boy."

**Ventus Uchiyama: The mischievous twin. When his girlfriend, Aqua Umiko, broke up with him for his best friend (now ex-best friend) in the past, he completely changed. He is no longer the sweet and shy Ventus. Instead, he messes with people's feelings, plays with girls' hearts and most of all; breaks couples up.**  
**Problem(s): he is still heartbroken over the breakup and wants every couple to suffer as much as he did.**

This boy was the identical image of Roxas. They had the same face shape, same hair, same eyebrows, same everything except for the eyes. His were a lighter shade of blue. However, you wouldn't notice unless you really looked into them.

"JERK. OH MY GOSH. I HATE THIS GUY ALREADY. CAN I NOT HELP HIM?"

"You have to."

"I REFUSE."

**Hayner Sasaki: He is a lazy couch potato who only ever gets up when a competition is mentioned. Hayner is obsessed with being number one, and brings people down only to boost his self-confidence, since everyone seemed to do that to him in the past. However, deep inside, he's still the Hayner with low-self confidence.**  
**Problem(s): he has an inferiority complex.**

Hayner was a dirty blond with adorable chocolate eyes.

"People are just jerks. What the hell, _they_ did this to him," she frowned. "All right, now we're down to the last... one..."

**Sora Hikari: I don't think you need a description for this one.**  
**Problem(s): he can't get over the girl he loves... and that girl is you, Kairi.**

She examined his picture. He looked a lot more mature; all that baby fat was gone. His untamed brown locks were a brighter shade, and those eyes... they were as gorgeous as ever. This was, without a doubt, _the_ Sora Hikari.

Kairi's heart was beating so fast, she thought it was going to explode. "Sora...?" There was an awkward silence for about five minutes, until she regained her senses and spoke up. "Namine, how could you..."

"I'm sorry, Kairi. I should've told you, but I was afraid you were gonna say no."

"OBVIOUSLY!" she yelled into the phone. "Namine, I-I can't do this. I haven't seen him in what, seven years?"

"Eight."

"Whatever. It's just... do you know how awkward it's gonna be?" she sighed. "I'm taking the next plane. I'm going home. I'm not doing this, I'm sorry."

"Yes, you are."

"Excuse me?"

"I paid for your damn plane ticket, for that damn limo and for that damn house, you are _not_ leaving Destiny Islands," she said darkly. "Unless you can pay me back immediately."

"How much?"

"1 000 000 munny."

"...Fine," Kairi sighed. "I'll stay."

"That's right."

The redhead's eyes widened. "OH, CRAP. WHAT TIME ARE THEY ALL ARRIVING TODAY? I'M NOT READY FOR THIS."

"Calm your tits, woman. I sent you there a day earlier."

"Oh my gosh, thank you."

"Yeah, yeah," Namine said. "Now would you stop calling? I'd like to finish this movie without getting interrupted every half hour, oh my gosh."

"What movie?"

"Mulan, the Disney one obviously."

A light bulb appeared on top of Kairi's head. "NAMI, YOU'RE A GENIUS!" she exclaimed and hung up.

She picked up her purse and ran out of the house as fast as the speed of sound. She entered a clothes store on the corner of the street and bought a bunch of male clothing.

"I can't believe I'm actually gonna do this," she thought.

Just like Mulan, she was going to disguise herself as a boy.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to cut your hair this short, dear?" the kind hairdresser asked.

Kairi sighed sadly. "Yes, I'm sure."

"You don't sound so certain."

"No, really. I've decided. Cut it, please."

The woman sighed. She felt so melancholic having to cut such long, healthy hair. But her customer wanted it short. She had no choice. The woman wet Kairi's hair a little, so that it would be easier to handle and to cut. She then proceeded in combing her soft hair, the thought of why her patient wanted to cut it still lingering in her mind. Afterwards, she took some of Kairi's hair (about two inches or so) and took out her scissors.

_Snip._

A chunk of red hair fell on the floor. Then another. Then another.

"There goes a year's worth of hair..." Kairi thought.

She always ended up doing something drastic when _he_ was involved. This time, it was cross-dressing. Two months under the same roof with him would cause nothing but trouble and awkward turtles.

About half an hour later, the woman cried, "Done!"

The berry-haired girl examined herself in the mirror.

"It's different, isn't it?" she asked the woman, laughing sadly.

"It is. But it looks good on you," was her reply.

Kairi ran her fingers through her hair, trying to get used to its new length.

_Just like when I was fourteen._

She gave the hairdresser a few coins, grabbed her purse and shopping bags, and headed out the door.

"For two months..."

_I'll be Kaito Okumitsu._

* * *

**A/N: **Hello hello hello.

You were probably like, "NAMINE SPENT A MILLION DOLLARS ON KAIRI?!" No, she didn't! You see, in Kingdom Hearts, the munny is represented as yen. So, 1 000 000 munny is about 10 000 dollars. Just wanted to clarify that LOL.

Oh and about Kairi's boy name, _Okumitsu _means secret, hidden. Makes sense? x]

Thanks to those who reviewed/faved/alerted! :D

**TRIVIA: **Namine is three years older than Kairi, just like how Elsa is three years older than Anna (Frozen); which is ironic since Namine acts more like Anna and Kairi acts more like Elsa. Fun fact: Kairi's middle name is _Erusa_, the Japanese pronunciation of _Elsa_.


	3. Kairi and the Seven Dimwits

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 03

**Kairi and the Seven Dimwits**

"Oh, so it wasn't a dream."

"Nope."

Kairi ran her fingers through her short hair, yawning. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Well you better believe it, honey. This is real," the person on the other line, Namine of course, said. "So, are you gonna call me every day to complain to me? You're gonna ruin my vacation."

"No, I'm not. Only when I need help or advice or whatever."

"Well… do you have any questions right now?"

"Actually, yeah, I do have one…"

"Fire away… fire away. You shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am titanium."

"You're not funny."

Disregarding her sister's comment, Namine continued, "What's your question?"

Kairi looked at herself in the mirror. "How do you feel about me cross-dressing?"

Insert awkward silence here.

"You must be kidding me," the sunshine-haired girl said disapprovingly.

"I don't want him to know it's me."

"Oh my gosh…" Namine massaged her temples. "Something tells me you even got your hair cut short instead of buying a wig."

"Yeah… Well, I didn't cut it _that_ short. It's the same hairstyle from when I was fourteen, but just a tiny bit shorter."

"Oh, I've always liked that hairstyle on you. I always thought you looked really cute," she smiled.

"Yeah, but my long hair…" Kairi frowned. All her life, Kairi had always felt like second best to Namine. Her older sister beat her in everything; she had better grades in school, she had a steady job, she was liked by everyone, she was more beautiful... But Namine had always envied Kairi's healthy, long red hair and so the younger one thought she had finally beat her in something. But now, she was back to square one.

"Hey, don't worry, it'll grow back," the one on the other line said reassuringly.

"I know," the red-haired girl smiled sadly.

"Wait... you could've just gotten a wig," Namine faceplamed.

"Wigs aren't reliable, are you kidding me? What if it falls off? What if one of them randomly decided to pull my hair one day?"

"Good point."

"So, what time are they coming again?" She slipped on a white t-shirt with red sleeves and a pair of beige khakis.

"Ah... around two." As a final touch, Kairi put on a red baseball cap turned around. She examined herself in the mirror. She looked very much like a boy in her attire.

"They could be coming any second now. I hope _he_ doesn't come first..."

"I hope he does." At this, Kairi growled. "I'm kidding. Sheesh, you take everything so seriously. So, how you looking?"

"Like a boy. Well, kinda. Pretty close."

"Boobs?"

"Tied them down with this ribbon-type thing I got at a nearby store. I'm flat as a board."

"Oh, how about your voice?"

"Being in the drama club back in high school actually really helped," she coughed, then said in a deeper voice, "The cold never bothered me anyway."

"Hey, not bad. You sounded a bit girl-ish near the end. But overall, very good."

"Yeah, still working on that. My days in the drama club are over, it's been a while since I've used my boy voice."

"I still can't believe you're actually doing this. You're such a... a... tomboy."

"Thanks. Not like everyone calls me that anyway." Namine laughed.

_Ding dong!_

"SHIT. IT'S OVER. THIS IS THE END OF MY LIFE." Kairi screeched like a pterodactyl as she looked out the window. "I SEE RED FLAMES. IT'S HELL COMING TO GET ME."

"Axel!" the one on the other line exclaimed. "Well, get to work. Call me if ever anything happens!" And with that, she hung up.

The redhead tip-toed down the stairs, growing more and more annoyed at every second, since the person at the door wouldn't stop ringing the doorbell. When she reached the door, she opened it up only to find herself gazing into sparkling green eyes.

"Uh, hi-" she began.

"Wow! You're pretty cute!" said the spiky redhead at the door. "How about we go get some dinner later on?" he winked. However, a few seconds of examining Kairi's body, he blanched. "Wait. Ah... are you a _guy?_"

"...Yeah, I am," Kairi replied flatly. Her eyes suddenly widened. "Uh, I mean- Yeah, I am!" she exclaimed in a deep voice. _Epic fail, Kairi._

"Well, I feel really gay right now," he twitched. She silently thanked the heavens that he didn't take mind- or possibly notice- her change of pitch. "I thought Namine said her sister would be replacing her...?"

"Oh, u-uh," she stuttered. She hadn't thought of a background yet. "I'm taking her sister's place because her sister... well, my _cousin_ is... really busy! Something came up, you know, and well, she's got stuff- _work_- to do in Traverse Town for the next two months." She laughed nervously.

"Ah," he seemed to have bought it. "So, you're Namine's cousin, huh? You're pretty short, I'm guessing you haven't hit puberty yet?"

"...I did hit it, thank you very much," the cross-dresser replied, trying to sound annoyed.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," the flame-haired man chuckled, holding his hand out. "The name's Axel Fujiwara. Got it memorized?"

"I guess?" she said, shaking his hand. "I'm Kai... to." _That was close_, she thought. "Kaito Okumitsu. It's nice to meet you, Axel."

"Pleasure's all mine," he smiled warmly. He looked around the place, whistling. "Dayum boy. This is a real nice place. Namine's so cool."

"Yeah... well, the bedrooms are upstairs, pick any room you'd like _except_ for the one in the end of the hall on the third floor. Think of it as the _West Wing._"

"What's in the West Wi-"

"It's forbidden," she snarled.

He raised an eyebrow. "Okay, fine. I'm taking the one next to it, if you don't mind." He picked up his bags and stalked up the stairs, grinning at every flammable item in the house. "Can't wait to burn all these things."

"Axel, you are _not_ burning anythi-"

_Ding dong!_

"Ah, crap..." she muttered. "Please don't be Sora." She opened the door slowly, giving off a dramatic effect, with her eyes closed. When she sensed it was fully open, she lifted one eye and sighed in relief to find a black-haired boy standing before her. He had an eyebrow raised, wondering what the heck this person was doing, who this person was and why they weren't of the opposite gender.

Without even introducing himself or giving a proper greeting, he said, "You're a boy."

"Uh, sorry to be a disappointment?" Kairi replied.

"No, I mean..." the charcoal-haired boy began. "Namine said her _sister_ would be replacing her."

"Oh yeah, I'm here to take my cousin's place... She's working in Traverse Town for the next two months, so I'm here to replace her." Kairi replied.

"Whatever." _Man, this guy had no emotions or what?_

Resisting the urge to slap him across the face for being so rude, she forced a smile and said, "There are rooms on the second and third floor. Pick any room you'd like. Two rooms on the third floor are already taken, by the way."

"By who?" he asked in such a monotone that it didn't even sound like a question.

"By me and-"

"ME!" a familiar voice yelled from above. There, looking down from the highest floor, was no other than Axel. Laughing maniacally, he sat on the rails and slid all the way to the bottom, where he jumped off and landed in the arms of the raven-haired boy. "Hey there."

"-this guy." Kairi finished. The boy let go of the redhead in his arms, who fell on the floor with a loud _Thud!_

"That hurt, you know," Axel said, arms crossed, still lying on the floor.

"I know," replied the one who dropped him.

"Name?"

"Vanitas Irino," he rolled his eyes as he walked towards the stairs.

"Aight, thanks. I'll be adding you to my to-burn list." Vanitas froze mid-walk.

"Did you just say... _burn?_"

"Um, yeah?"

**_BAM!_**

"VANITAS!" Kairi shrieked in horror. He had just punched Axel in the face.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" the pyromaniac cried, holding his face as he rolled on the floor in pain.

"For saying that word," was all he said.

The two redheads watched as he ran up the stairs to the second floor, and both winced when he slammed the door.

Kairi turned to him, "Good job, _dimwit._"

"What'd I do?"

"You _know_ his problem has something to do with fire, and you just _had_ to say something about it."

"What are you talking about? I had no idea his problem had something to do with my element!"

"What? You've... never met him before?"

"No!"

"Oh, my gosh." She took out her cellphone and dialed her sister's cellphone number.

"What is it now?" Namine answered.

"THEY DON'T KNOW EACH OTHER?" Kairi yelled into the device.

"No." _Beep. Beep. Beep._

"Rude." _Things just got ten times harder._

_Ding dong!_

"It's open."

"HAYNER IN THE HOUSE!" a dirty blond hollered as he threw his luggage in the air. Kairi caught one of his bags, while the other one landed on poor Axel's stomach. The new arrival looked around the house and at the two before him. "Nice place you got here, but I've seen much better."

"Good for you," the cross-dresser rolled her eyes.

Disregarding her previous comment, the boy asked, "So, where am I staying?"

"Pick any room you'd like on the second or third floor. There are already two rooms taken on the third, and one on the second."

"I'll go with the second floor. Wouldn't wanna leave that poor, lonely sucker on the second floor by themselves, am I right?" he chuckled.

"That wasn't very nice."

He raised an eyebrow. "Hey, come on. It was a joke. A funny one, at that."

"Head up the stairs now, would you?"

"Alright, alright. Sheesh..." he picked up his bags and walked up the stairs to the second floor, where he shut the door behind him gently.

Kairi turned to Axel, "Hey, you can go back to your room now. You don't have to stay here with me."

He shrugged, "I wanna get to know my boys."

_Ding dong!_

She opened the door and came face to face with a cute blond with blue eyes.

"Hey there! I'm Roxas!" he exclaimed sweetly, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Finally! A nice greeting!" she exclaimed, grabbing his outstretched hand. "I'm Ka- AH! HOLY SHIT!" She blew on her hand and shook it repeatedly to try to get the pain to disappear.

The boy at the door began to laugh hysterically, holding out his hand to reveal the thing that shocked her: a hand buzzer. "You should've seen your face!"

"What the hell, _Roxas_, what are you, six?" she yelled angrily, ready to rip his head off.

"He's not Roxas, I am," another voice, but this time slightly higher-pitched, said. Another Roxas emerged from the bushes.

"WOAH, YO KAITO, I THINK I'M SEEING DOUBLE," Axel cried.

"You're not seeing double, they're twins," she sighed heavily.

"You got it!" they exclaimed in unison. They both examined the shorter redhead's body.

"Hold up, hold up," one of them said. "Are you a boy?"

"Yeah, I am."

"...Are you sure?" asked the other one.

"Yes, I'm sure," she sighed. "Namine's sister- my cousin- has some stuff to do in Traverse Town. I'm replacing her."

"Damn it, that sucks. I wanted to see how different she was from Namine," the twin with eyes a slightly darker shade of blue, Roxas, said.

"Namine said that her sister was the opposite of her. She's really pretty, so her sister must be really unattractive, huh?" Ventus laughed as his brother joined him.

Kairi's eye twitched. "You two are such assholes."

They immediately stopped laughing. "Geez, what's up with you? It's not like_ you're_ the one we're calling unattractive," Roxas' brother retorted. _Psh, that's what you think._

"Just shut up and head on upstairs. There are two rooms left on the second floor, you two will be taking them."

"There's a third floor! We'll take two from th-"

"No."

"And why not?"

"I don't want a pair of dimwits living on the same floor as me."

He scoffed. "Alright, fine. Like we'd wanna live on the same floor as you anyway."

They both pushed past her and walked up the stairs to the second floor. They picked their rooms and slammed their doors at the exact same time.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go to my room, too. Every person that enters this place just gets more and more jerk-ish. Adios," Axel said as he ran up the stairs, arms apart and smiling widely, all the while singing "Let it Go".

"What the hell."

_Ding dong!_

Time seemed to have stopped.

Her heart was beating so fast, she thought it was going to explode.

"Sora?"

"...Kairi?"

Oh, _shit._

The redhead coughed over-exaggeratedly. "Uh- c_ough_- no, I-I'm Kaito. Kaito Okumitsu. Kairi's cousin."

The brunet at the door's face fell slightly. "Oh... hi. Sorry about that. You just... look a lot like her."

"Hey, don't worry. We're family after all," she laughed nervously.

He looked handsome in that picture Namine dug up for her, but wow, did he look a lot more attractive in person.

"I'm Sora, by the way! Well, uh, guess you already know that since you called out my name just a minute ago," he chuckled. "Nice to meet you, Kai."

Her stomach made a flip. "Kai?"_  
_

_"Kairi, huh?"_

_"Yes, that's my name."_

_"Hm... mind if I call you 'Kai'?"_

_"Kai? Why?"_

_"It's a lot easier."_

"...to. Kaito. Woah, sorry," the brunet laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "Won't happen again, _Kaito_."

She forced a smile. "Don't worry. Well anyways, there are two rooms left in the house. Go ahead and pick whichever you want, they're located on the third floor."

"Thanks!" he exclaimed, grinning. The chocolate-haired boy ran up the stairs, all the way to the third floor. He picked the first door he saw and twisted the doorknob. It wasn't locked, so he threw the door opened and-

_**SLAP!**_

"PERVERT!" the person in the room cried. Sora looked up to find a man with spiky red hair in front of him.

Rubbing his cheek, the brunet shouted, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"You walked in on me changing!" the man known as Axel exclaimed.

"YOU'RE FULLY DRESSED."

"...Oh, yeah. I just finished."

Sora slapped his forehead and turned around to pick another room. He gave the redhead's door a light knock. "I'm sorry, though. I should've knocked."

Axel opened up the door. "Hey, no worries, dude. You know, I like you. You're not rude like the rest of these jerks."

"The rest of these jerks?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, about six people arrived here before you did. They just haven't gone out of their rooms to greet you cause they're all douchenuggets."

"Oh..." He had never felt so un-welcomed in his life. "Well anyways, I'm Sora Hikari. It's nice to meet you..."

"Axel Fujiwara."

They shook hands casually. "So... anything I need to know so far?"

"Well, that guy down there that looks like a chick is Namine's cousin-"

"Besides that, anything else?"

"Hm... no. Oh! You see that room in the end of the hall? Think of it as the _West Wing,_" he repeated what Kairi had told him earlier.

"What's in the West Win-"

"IT'S FORBIDDEN." His voice echoed throughout the house.

"...Why?"

"Ah, I don't know. All I know is that it's a no-no. It's Kaito's room, might wanna ask him about it later."

_Ding dong!_

"The last one," Kairi sighed in relief. She opened up the door to let the person inside. "Hey th-"

Instead of giving her a warm- or rude- greeting, the person brushed past the red-haired girl, looking down in order to avoid eye contact. He started for the stairs, but tripped halfway and ended up tumbling down, finally landing in front of the female.

"Clumsy, are you?" she giggled.

The boy just covered his face in embarrassment and headed up the stairs again. He stopped at the second floor and ran down the hall, looking for a room.

"The only room left is on the third floor."

He ran up another flight of stairs and into the third floor of the penthouse.

The silver-haired boy, and the last one to arrive, made his way to the last room available and placed his hand on the doorknob. He twisted it slowly with a small smile on his face knowing that he would be safe behind this door, but when he opened it, a bucket of transparent liquid fell on him.

This grabbed everyone in the household's attention, making them all run to the place the noise came from. When they all arrived, they made a circle around the drenched teen and all cackled- except for Kairi and Sora, the only two who seemed to have a heart in this place.

Laughter filled the hall, but two blonde twins were laughing the loudest.

"How did h-he not s-see it?" one blonde said through laughs.

"What an i-i-idiot!" the other twin exclaimed, laughing harder.

"What is this?" Kairi sniffed before covering her nose. "Augh! It smells terrible!"

"It's vinegar!" the two said in unison, giving each other a high-five.

"That wasn't very funny," she said.

"Are you kidding me, midget? Everyone's laughing!" the blonde on the right said. _Midget?_

"HEY! WHO'RE YOU CALLING A MIDGET?" Midget wasn't such a mean insult, but Kairi was the shortest in her group of friends. She had gotten so tired of always being called names like Midget or Shorty, so calling her one of those names, or anything similar, would make her go berserk.

"Geez, no need to shout," he replied, then whispered to his twin, "Hey, Ven, this is the first time I've met a guy who has PMS."

"I HEARD THAT, YOU JERK!"

"Ooh, what're you gonna do about it? What can an ant do to me?"

"ANT? BASTARD, YOU AREN'T EVEN THAT TALL. YOU'RE PROBABLY ONLY THREE CENTIMETERS TA-"

The three were then interrupted by the slamming of a door. Seconds later, another splash was heard behind it.

"...And that was the tomato juice."

* * *

"_FIRE!_"

A group of seven boys came rushing out of different rooms, be it the bathroom or the bedroom, and into the living room. Axel ran in with a huge smile on his face and a lighter in hand, Vanitas looked like he was going to rip Axel's head off, Riku's face was hidden under his black hoodie, the twins held on to each other with looks of terror on their faces, Hayner looked like he just woke up and Sora was soaking wet with only a bath towel on.

"WHERE'S THE FIRE?" they all yelled simultaneously, but in different tones of voice.

"Nowhere," Kairi laughed. She observed each one of them, but when she turned to Sora, she immediately looked away to stop herself from gaping at his well-toned muscles. "I'd like to get to know you all better."

"Waste of time, I'm going back to sleep," Hayner threw his hands behind his head and turned around to head back to his room.

Kairi grabbed the back collar of his shirt and pulled it, "No, you are going to stay here."

"Says who?"

"Says me. Now shut the hell up and sit down."

Sora raised his hand. "Can I go put a shirt on?"

"...Yeah, you go do that," she blushed. The brunet ran up the stairs and returned five minutes later with a white muscle shirt and black pants. All seven boys then proceeded in plopping on the couches noisily, situating themselves at least a meter away from each other.

"Don't touch me."

"You're too close!"

"I'm like two meters away from you."

"No touchy."

"Who the frick touched me?"

"Who keeps moving the couch?"

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME."

"I DIDN'T EVEN TOUCH YOU, YOU ASSFACE."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

"Both of you just shut up, you're giving me a headache."

"YOU HEARD ME."

"YOU WANNA GO?"

Kairi massaged her temples. These boys hardly even knew each other, but they were already arguing.

"GUYS!" she yelled. They all turned their attention towards her. "I cannot believe this. You guys don't even know each other," she sighed. "You know what, I'll introduce you all to each other."

"Why can't we-" Ventus began.

"Because eff you all, that's why," she growled.

"Rude."

The cross-dresser rolled her eyes. She walked over to Axel, who was sitting on a loveseat, "This is Axel Fujiwara. He's a pyromaniac."

"Burn baby," he clicked his tongue. This earned him a glare from Vanitas.

She then walked over to the long couch four boys were sitting on. "Riku Miyano; anti-social. Hayner Sasaki; inferiority complex. Vanitas; depressed sadist. And the one sitting on the edge is Sora, he dwells on his sad past," she introduced in order, pointing at a different boy after each name. Finally, she walked over to the twins, who were sitting on a two-seater couch. She observed them intently, then pointed a finger to the one on the right, then the left. "This one here's Roxas, and this one's Ventus."

"Wrong!" the blonds exclaimed in unison.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, say what you want."

"No one can tell the difference between us two."

Kairi turned to Ventus, "Your eyes are a tad bit lighter than Roxas'."

They looked at her in shock. But before either of them could say anything, she continued, "Roxas and Ventus Uchiyama. Roxas; his hatred took over him. Ventus; a huge-ass jerk who breaks couples up and plays with girls' hearts."

"Huge-ass jerk?!" the older Uchiyama shouted.

"Yeah, that's right."

"You should just keep your mouth shut about things you don't understand."

"I have your info, I know your whole story. And to be honest, you're a real shitty pers-"

"WHAT IS ON YOUR SHIRT?!" Hayner suddenly shrieked, pointing at Vanitas' top. "Is that... _blood?_"

"Dayum, that's a lot of blood. Nosebleed?" Axel asked.

"Huh? No, it wasn't a nosebleed," Vanitas replied, looking down at the red stain on his gray shirt.

"What is it, then?" Hayner asked.

Vanitas rummaged through his backpack and after about a minute or so, he took out a medium-sized gun. Everyone in the room screamed like little girls, holding onto each other with a look of terror on their faces.

"Shut up, all of you!" he snarled. "It's a paintball gun!"

Ventus, who was the first to stop screaming, twitched. "...Why did you bring it with you?"

"To do this," and with that, Vanitas shot a blue paint ball at Ventus' forehead.

"Why you-" Another paint ball; this time, red. Then yellow. Then purple. "YOU'RE DEAD." The blonde let out a battle cry and charged at his opponent.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" Axel exclaimed over and over as he watched the two boys roughhouse each other.

Sora was trying to get the two boys to stop, but instead got shot in the chest with a paint ball. He fell backwards dramatically as Roxas shouted, "MAN DOWN!" Riku was curled up into a ball and hidden in the space between two couches, hoping that no one would notice him, and Hayner, being the lazy potato he is, fell asleep on the floor, drool flowing out of his mouth.

Kairi stared in disbelief.

_This is going to be harder than I thought._

* * *

**A/N: **This was such a fun chapter to write, especially the end LOL. By the way, I'd love to know your answer for the following question...

**Who's your favorite character so far?**

I really wanna know if I'm giving them enough personality. Please answer by reviewing! :)


	4. Invisible

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 04

**Invisible**

"One minute on the clock, ten bullets, seven enemies," Kairi whispered to herself. She pressed a button on the device safely secured around her thin wrist. The names of her seven opponents showed up, along with stats. "According to this, my biggest enemy would be-"

"Me."

_BANG!_

She looked down at her chest, the place where she had just been shot, and watched as red liquid dripped down her armor. She fell backwards dramatically, cursing her cruel fate. "This... isn't over..."

"Oh, Kaito. Kaito, Kaito, Kaito," the mysterious figure laughed darkly. "I'm afraid it is."

**GONG!**

"Time's up!"

The dim light became bright, allowing the redhead to see who shot her.

"VANITAS?!" she cried.

"And you mark my forty seventh shot, thus making me..." he pointed at the jumbo screen on the wall.

On the screen were seven names and stats.

_**HITS: Number of times you were shot.**_  
_**SHOTS: Number of times you shot someone.**_  
_**RANKING: In order of shots.**_

**01. RIKU MIYANO**  
**Hits: 0**  
**Shots: 54**

**02. VANITAS IRINO**  
**Hits: 9**  
**Shots: 47**

**03. HAYNER SASAKI**  
**Hits: 9**  
**Shots: 46**

**04. VENTUS UCHIYAMA**  
**Hits: 19**  
**Shots: 39**

**05. ROXAS UCHIYAMA**  
**Hits: 14**  
**Shots: 37**

**06. KAITO OKUMITSU**  
**Hits: 29**  
**Shots: 32**

**07. SORA HIKARI**  
**Hits: 13**  
**Shots: 24**

**08. AXEL FUJIWARA**  
**Hits: 69**  
**Shots: 7**

"NUMBER TWO?!" the black-haired boy suddenly screeched, dropping his gun in shock. "There must be some kind of mistake. _No one's_ ever beat me in paintball before!"

"Oh shut up, Riku beat you, all right? Now get over it," the tomboy rolled her eyes.

All eight players met up at the front, armor off and guns taken away, each holding a copy of the results.

"Axel, how do you even manage to suck so bad?" Roxas asked.

"_You_ try playing with flashy red hair and titan height," Axel twitched, ripping the paper in half.

"YOU BEAT ME BY ONE POINT?" Hayner shrieked, his words directed at Vanitas.

"Yeah, that's right. Suck it," the ebony-haired boy smirked.

"Riku? Where are you?" Kairi called out, looking all over the place.

"Right h-here..." said a voice in a low whisper. The berry-haired girl turned around to find a silver-haired boy just a few steps away.

"What the... how did I not notice you?" she asked.

"Don't worry about that, no one else does," he pointed at his name on the paper he received.

Sora, who heard what he had just said, laughed and slapped the loner on the back. "You're funny. And really good at this, too!"

Upon hearing the blond say that, everyone turned their attention towards Riku.

"Yeah, I agree!" a male redhead exclaimed. "Teach me, senpai," Axel bowed down before him.

"Axel, you're older than him," Roxas stated.

"Too bad."

The jealous duo, Hayner and Vanitas, watched with arms crossed over their chests.

"I don't see why you guys are getting so excited over this," the blond scoffed.

"Yeah, seriously. So he got first place in paintball, big deal," the raven-haired boy said this time.

Kairi stomped her foot on the ground. "Hey, you jerks! You could at least _pretend_ you're happy for him instead of being jealous assholes!"

"Why pretend? I'd rather show my true emotions," Vanitas said as he walked over to the now trembling Riku. "I challenge you."

"M-me?" the silver-haired boy asked nervously.

"No, actually, I challenge all of you." He glared at every face in the room. "Let's have a sports tournament. Person with the most wins by the end of the day is the winner."

"And what will that prove?" Sora asked, an eyebrow raised.

"That Riku isn't worth congratulating."

The brunet rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you two, getting so worked up over something so small."

"It's just to prove a point," Hayner said this time. "So, what do you say?"

"I'll play just to prove that he _is _worth congratulating," Axel said with fire in his eyes. "You guys are the worst kinds of people."

Kairi thought for a minute. "Hm. Yeah, same here. I wanna fight for Riku."

"Me, too," Sora said through gritted teeth.

"So, that's how it is, huh?" the cocky blond asked. "Alright, we'll split into two teams: Riku's and mine."

"Axel, Kaito and I will be in Riku's team," the chocolate-haired boy said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"We'll join Hayner's team," the twins said simultaneously.

"I honestly don't think he's _all that_ either," Ventus said as he and his brother walked over to the opposite side.

Hayner walked over to Riku and held out a hand.

"Challenge accepted?"

Trembling, the silver-haired boy shook it, almost regretting his decision.

"Challenge accepted."

* * *

**CHALLENGE 01: VIDEO GAMES  
**

Thanks to Hayner's amazing Tony Stark-type skills, he was able to hack _Super Smash Bros Brawl _and replace every Nintendo character with a Final Fantasy character. The gaming tournament was as follows: each member in a team was paired up with someone from the opposing team. This meant four rounds, and the team with the most wins would be crowned the winner of this category.

"You dare insult my favorite character, the sexy and strong-willed, Tifa Lockhart?!" Axel screamed, diving a knife into the round wooden table the group was sitting around, hardly missing Hayner's fingers. The sunshine-haired boy's hand retreated as he screamed in horror.

A gasp. "That is _mahogany!_" Kairi exclaimed.

"Dang it, I missed..." Axel muttered.

"Come on, her outfit just screams _lazy!_" Hayner retorted. "A crop top and a mini skirt? Honestly!"

"Yeah, well... You only like Lightning cause of her virtual _ass!_"

"THEN YOU LIKE TIFA CAUSE OF HER VIRTUAL BOOBS!"

"G-guys..." Kairi tried to shut them up, but was completely ignored.

"AT LEAST SHE HAS BOOBS!"

"YOU MUST BE BLIND CAUSE LIGHTNING DOES HAVE BOOBS!"

"THEY AREN'T AS NICE AS TIFA'S PAIR!"

"WELL, YOUR TIFA DOESN'T HAVE AN ASS!"

"Guys..." she tried again, but to no avail.

"ARE YOU SOME KIND OF IDIOT? SHE DOES, IT'S HIDDEN UNDER HER SEXY MINI SKIRT!"

"LIGHTNING'S-"

"GUYS!" the redhead screamed, finally grabbing to attention of the two bickering boys. "JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY."

The two obeyed and pressed the A button to commence the battle. Both female characters, Tifa and Lightning of course, appeared on the screen and landed gracefully on the podium.

**3... 2... 1...**

**GO!**

"Hayner, Tifa Lockhart or Seymour Guado?" Axel asked. His character sent a swift kick at its opponent, almost making the pink-haired heroine fall off.

"Seymour," Hayner said without hesitation. He made Lightning cast a Firaga spell on Tifa, who indeed got hit, but surprisingly didn't fall off.

"Tifa or Queen Brahne?"

"Queen Brahne."

"Tifa or Marlene?"

"Marlene."

"You nasty lolicon."

"WHAT'D YOU SAY?"

**GAME!**

**The winner is... LINK!**

The Legend of Zelda theme played in the background as Tifa flipped her hair and made a thumbs up.

"Epic fail, Hayner. You couldn't change the name or the music?" the twins said at the same time with attitude.

Frustrated, the dirty blond glared at the two, "Well, _sorry. _At least appreciate the fact that I managed to switch out the original characters and replace them with Square Enix ones." He childishly threw the controller on the floor and plopped on the couch, arms crossed. Axel still sat in the same spot, waving his arms in the air as Sora and Kairi cheered. Riku had a small smile on his face that lasted a split second, but Kairi saw it and smiled brightly.

"Next one is Sora versus Roxas," Hayner muttered almost inaudibly.

The blond and the brunet made their way to the front and took the two previous players' places; Sora in Axel's and Roxas in Hayner's.

"Alright, let's get down to business," the brown-haired boy said as he pulled up his sleeves.

"TO DEFEAT THE HUNS," Axel sang off-key.

"Don't do that."

Sora picked the famous _Final Fantasy VIII_ character Squall Leonhart, and Roxas picked the one and only _Final Fantasy IX_ character Zidane Tribal.

**3... 2... 1...**

**GO!**

"TUTUTUTU!" was Sora's sound effects as he watched Squall shoot Zidane with his gunblade repeatedly.

"JUMP... JUMP, JUMP DAMN IT!" Roxas cursed as he spammed the jump button. His character obeyed and while in mid-air, he pressed a button, causing Zidane to charge at his opponent at full speed and inflict damage. "IS THAT IT? SO WEAK. CAN I AT LEAST STEAL STUFF FROM HIM?"

"Dude, you can't steal stuff in Super Smash Bros," Hayner said, rolling his eyes.

"This is so crap. I'm a thief, but I can't steal. I thought I could, that was the only reason why I picked him. Thanks a lot Hayner, now I'm most probably gonna lose and it's all your fault."

"I'm gonna shove a watermelon up your ass, you inconsiderate jerk. Do you have any idea how long it took just to replace the characters?"

**GAME!**

**The winner is... JIGGLYPUFF!**

Squall twirled his gunblade in his hand, then rested it on his right shoulder.

Roxas childishly threw his controller on the floor as well. "See? If we lose, I'm blaming you! Freaking useless."

Hayner slapped the back of the younger Uchiyama's head. "Asshole."

The winner jumped up and high-fived each of his team mates.

"Now Kaito versus Ventus," Hayner said.

The two decided to sit on the couch rather than the floor.

Kairi picked Sephiroth from_ Final Fantasy VII _and Ventus picked Noel from _Final Fantasy XIII-2.__  
_

"Sephiroth?" Ventus asked.

"He's probably the wisest pick. I've never played this game before cause I only play role-playing games. I've played VII though, and I remember him being super strong," she said.

**3... 2... 1...**

**GO!**

_Kick!_

**GAME!**

**And the winner is... SONIC!**

**"**KAITO!" Sora and Axel cried in disbelief.

It happened so fast, they couldn't believe their eyes.

"I-I'm sorry!" she apologized.

"That was... really embarrassing..." Ventus sweatdropped as Kairi buried her face in her hands.

"Final round! Riku versus Vanitas!" Hayner exclaimed, ecstatic that his team finally won a point.

Axel massaged Riku's shoulders as if the silver-haired boy were about to enter the ring in a boxing match. "I believe in you, Silverlocks. You can beat this guy, it'll be a piece of cake. Show him what you've got!"

Vanitas picked Jecht from _Final Fantasy X._

"Pick Sephiroth! SEPHIROTH!" Kairi screamed into her patient's ears.

"YOU DIED AS SEPHIROTH, SO NO. IT'S BAD LUCK," Axel screamed. "PICK AN AEON. GO WITH BAHAMUT."

"THE BEST PICK IS OBVIOUSLY ULTIMECIA OR KEFKA," Sora argued.

"G-guys, I already made my pick..." the loner said in a hushed voice. His three team mates looked up at the tv screen.

"...A Moogle?" everyone in the room, except for Riku, said at the same time.

"Are you stupid?" Hayner laughed. "A Moogle versus Jecht. Wow. Vanitas, you got this."

**3... 2... 1...**

**GO!**

* * *

**And the winner is... CAPTAIN FALCON!**

"You _must_ be kidding me."

A game of _Super Smash Bros Brawl _between a man that almost destroyed all of Spira and a mere Moogle turned out to be almost thirty minutes long. Between these two characters, _anyone _would've rooted for Jecht. His character was swift, powerful, agile whereas all a Moogle did was fly, throw items and cry "Kupo!" every now and then. But of course, there was that one special saying: expect the unexpected.

"And the winner is... Riku...?" Hayner said, shocked.

The whole room was silent. Everyone was at a loss for words. They couldn't believe it; it was surreal.

"No way," Kairi said, mouth agape as she stared at the screen.

Seconds later, Riku's whole team cheered loudly, high-fived each other and danced around the living room, rubbing their victory in their opponents' faces. Hayner's team still stared at the tv screen in shock.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FRICK," the twins exclaimed at the same time.

"So, ready to bow down before us and apologize for your uncanny behaviour earlier?" Axel smirked, nudging both Hayner and Vanitas.

The dirty blond scoffed, "Okay, so you guys won this round. We'll see how you do next challenge."

"Are you serious right now?" the redhead stared at him in disbelief. "How about I shove your inferiority complex right up your-"

"AXEL. DO NOT," the other redhead, Kairi of course, scolded.

"No, but seriously. Hayner's got a point. It's the first challenge. You guys have _one_ point. Wow," Vanitas spat.

"First of all, we have _two_. The paintball tournament counts. Second of all, you lost to a _Moogle._ Don't even talk, you're garbage," she countered.

"You lost five seconds after the match started."

"That's different. I've never played this game before. That idiot over there," she pointed at Ventus, "Didn't even give me a chance to test out the controls. You've played this before, and losing to a Moogle is pretty embarrassing for the 'King of Super Smash Bros'."

"Whatever."

With a look of satisfaction on her face, Kairi turned to the captain of the losers' team, "So, what's the next challenge?"

"You'll see," he replied as he headed out the door. The rest followed, a look of confusion on their faces.

* * *

**CHALLENGE 02: DOUBLE DASH RACING**

"Dude, this isn't even funny. Your obsession with winning is a little over the top," Sora shook his head as he looked down at his attire.

The brunet was wearing a body suit a dark shade of gray that hugged his muscular body. Boots of the same color covered his feet and a silver helmet sat on his head; his spiky hair sticking out from the sides. The design on his outfit looked like the pattern of a microchip's, which glowed blue when he entered the gaming area. His weapon, a replica of the Kingdom Key from the popular game series _Kingdom Hearts_, glowed blue as well.

Everyone else was wearing the same thing, but their patterns glowed a different color. Axel's was orange, Vanitas' was red, Riku's was white, Roxas' was yellow, Ventus' was green, Hayner's was pink and lastly, Kairi's was purple.

They all had glowing weapons, too. Axel had chakrams, Vanitas had an X-blade, Riku had Way to the Dawn, Roxas had Oathkeeper, Ventus had Earthshaker, Hayner had a Struggle bat and Kairi had Destiny's Embrace; each weapon from the game series _Kingdom Hearts_ as well.

"You guys seriously suck. Hayner and I are the only ones with originality here," Axel stuck his tongue out as he raised his chosen weapon. "I hate you, but high-five!" he lifted up his hand for the blond to high-five.

"No," Hayner said with a straight face on.

"You suck too, pinky."

"HEY, SHUT UP. There weren't any other colors left. I wanted green, that's not fair."

"Well, too bad," the one with the green suit, Ven, replied.

"Yeah, well I wanted red. It's my signature color. But that piece of crap over there called it before I did," the flame-haired boy said, pointing a finger at Vanitas.

"Well, you're too slow," the sadist scoffed.

"Why did you choose red anyway?"

"Because it's the color of the blood of my future victims."

_**LEVEL ONE ABOUT TO COMMENCE**_

A hologram of a man suddenly appeared before them.

"Hello. My name is Tron," he greeted. "Welcome. First things first; this game is called Double Dash Racing. It's basically a mix of Light Cycle Racing and Mario Kart. There are three levels in total. You will all be riding motorcycles in each one. In this level, you will all have to defeat the Heartless while avoiding the walls with the weapon of your choice individually. Look out for Mystery Boxes; break one open with your weapon and you might get something really useful. The winner is the one with the most EXP, the number can be found in the rear of your motorcycle. You cannot, I repeat, _cannot _hit anyone with your weapon. If your weapon comes in contact with another individual, you are automatically disqualified. Your motorcycle will stop running the moment you do, turn itself around and drive itself back to the... well, I guess you could call it a parking lot. But you are allowed to hit them with something you got from a Mystery Box."

All eight players walked over to their vehicle and the moment they sat on it, glowed the color of their suit.

**_GET READY IN 3... 2... 1... GO!_**

_Vroom!_

They all dashed across the video game-like world, avoiding Heartless at all costs. A certain spiky-haired brunet, the one and only Sora Hikari of course, defeated the Heartless so quickly and easily, as if it were nothing. Everyone watched him hit Mystery Boxes open, swing his Keyblade with amazing accuracy and drive steadily, yet swiftly. Kairi watched with admiration in her eyes. Needless to say, the moment didn't last very long as she remembered that she was still pissed off at him for whatever he did in the past, and quickly turned away from him to focus on the road and mentally slap herself across the face.

"Roxy!" Axel said, following closely behind the blond. "You be my princess and I'll be your toad, I'll follow behind you on this life-threatening road, protect you from Heartless wherever we go, I promise!"

"Get away from me," Roxas twitched.

"I know you want me."

While leaning on the left to hit open a Mystery Box, the redhead's motorcycle was hit by the grade-A pain in the ass found in any _Mario Kart _game... Yeah, that's right, the banana.

"WHO. THE FRICK. THREW A BANANA AT ME?" Axel screeched, his vehicle swirling around. Two familiar twins high-fived each other, laughing mischievously.

"Good job, little brother!" Ventus laughed, giving his sibling a thumbs up.

"He creeps me out. Had to do it," Roxas grinned, hitting another Mystery Box in the process, which revealed itself to be not one, but three green turtle shells, "And these are for..." he aimed his Keyblade at his target, "Riku."

The shells went sliding across the floor, all three of them running in different directions, then all collided. The blond's eyes widened.

"Roxas, did you get him?" the older Uchiyama asked. When he received no answer, he tired again. "Roxas, did you-"

"He... disappeared," he answered in complete shocked.

"What?"

"He just... he's gone." Ventus turned around to find no one close by. "Hayner, Vanitas and Sora are in front of us. Kaito and Axel are behind us... Where's Miyano?"

"Right here."

Upon hearing that voice, the twins turned around to find Riku in front of them, somehow driving his vehicle backwards. He turned his motorcycle around once he was satisfied with seeing their shocked expressions, and zoomed away. Still not over the fact that they didn't see the loner pass them, the Uchiyama's both got attacked by Heartless due to not focusing on the road.

Axel and Kairi eventually caught up to them and both threw bomb-bombs at the blonds. The pair fist-bumped each other before zooming right past.

In the end, the ranking was as follows:

**LEVEL 01 SCORES:**

**1ST: SORA HIKARI  
EXP: 580**

**2ND: RIKU MIYANO  
EXP: 560**

**3RD: HAYNER SASAKI  
EXP: 520**

**4TH: VANITAS IRINO  
EXP: 490**

**5TH: KAITO OKUMITSU  
EXP: 430**

**6TH: AXEL FUJIWARA  
EXP: 410**

**7TH: ROXAS UCHIYAMA  
EXP: 405**

**8TH: VENTUS UCHIYAMA  
EXP: 385**

"AW YISS," Sora pumped his fists in the air.

"I wasn't trying," was Hayner's pathetic excuse. "You looked so happy, I didn't wanna crush your dreams by driving right past you."

"You see this?" the brunet, now pissed, pointed at his Keyblade. "I'm gonna shove it so far up your-"

**_LEVEL ONE: COMPLETE_**

Tron reappeared before them, "Well done, Sora," he smiled.

_**LEVEL TWO ABOUT TO COMMENCE**_

"Now in this level, you will all have to work in pairs. Not only does level two test partnership and cooperation, but it also tests trust. One person will be driving, while the other will be attacking. You have the liberty of picking your partner, and this challenge will be done on _one _motorcycle. You will have to connect your motorcycles together by using the data chip you each have in your pocket. It'll create a vehicle fit for two and add up you and your team mate's EXP points. Good luck and be safe." He disappeared.

"Vanitas, you're with me," Hayner said.

The charcoal-haired boy raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I'd wanna work with some idiot like you?"

The brown-eyed boy pointed at the hologram that held the test scores. "Do you really wanna be with one of the Uchiyama's?"

"Good point," he shrugged. "You drive, I attack."

"I call Spikes!" Axel cried, hugging Sora as if he were a large-sized teddy bear.

"That's not a very good idea," Kairi said, pointing at the scores. "Sora and Riku are in first and second place, respectively. We have a higher chance of winning if they're paired up together. They have amazing skill and their EXP points added up are already a lot higher than Hayner and Vanitas' together, automatically making them first place. If Sora and I are paired up, we're tied. If you and Sora are paired up, we're second. Our best bet would be these two together."

"True. Dammit, I'm with the girly guy."

"Girly guy?!"

"Just look at the Keyblade you chose. I just... I can't even believe this," he shook his head in shame, pointing at Kairi's weapon, Destiny's Embrace. "Like, what the hell is that."

"I'm gonna twist your nipples so hard that they bleed and Hayner's gonna have to suck them dry to stop the blood from flowing."

"...Damn dude."

Each pair walked over to their motorcycles and connected them to their partner's. It looked the same, but slightly larger and now with an extra seat in the back, and glowed the color of you and your team mate's color mixed.

Hayner (pink) and Vanitas's (red) was a bright red, Ventus (green) and Roxas' (yellow) was a light green, Sora (blue) and Riku's (white) was a light blue, and Axel (orange) and Kairi's (purple) was... well, apparently their color didn't look very nice mixed together, so it was changed to white. As you can see, the colors didn't change very much.

"Hey guys, your new color matches with my hair!" Axel, who was in the driver's seat, exclaimed to Hayner and Vanitas.

"Hm... no, actually, our color is crimson. Your hair is more of a... _blood orange_," the one with an inferiority complex said in an attempt to sound smart.

The redhead turned to Kairi, who was sitting behind him, and grimaced. "Did you hear what he just said?"

"What? The blood orange thing?" she asked.

"Yeah, _what the hell_," he then turned to his opponents once more, "Hayner, do me a favor and shove your pretentiousness right up your hairy ass; it's fricking _red._"

_**GET READY IN 3... 2... 1... GO!**_

In short: Sora and Riku were the perfect team. They fought Heartless, avoided walls, gave each other high-fives and encouraging words. They were no match for Hayner and Vanitas, or anyone for that matter.

And right when you thought it was all rainbows and sunshine, something just _had _to mess things up.

"GET THE HELL OFF OF ME!" Sora exclaimed as he tried to kick away the Heartless nibbling at his weapon.

Riku turned around, his eyes widening. He drove in zigzags in an attempt to brush them off, but to no avail.

"Get off h-him..." Riku whispered. "Get off Hikari..." he gasped when he saw the Heartless clawing at his team mate. With a sudden burst of confidence, the normally silent boy yelled, "GET OFF MY PARTNER!" This shocked Sora, and maybe even the Heartless, who seemed to have obeyed. However, a new set of creatures jumped at the Keybearer.

"Hikari, l-let go of the Keyblade!"

"What? Are you crazy?!" the brunet shouted back.

"It'll be all right, please, trust me!"

"But Hayner and Vanitas are right there, we need as much EXP as possible!"

"Trust me!"

_Not only does level two test partnership and cooperation, but it also tests trust._

"...Alright!" Sora let go of his Kingdom Key and watched as it disappeared when it touched the floor.

"Now, let's trade places!" was another one of Riku's orders.

"What?!"

"I'll beat them all up with _my _Keyblade!"

"Just pass it to me, I'll-"

"No, we can't risk losing another weapon! We have one more level left!"

The brunet nodded. Both boys switched places; Sora was now the driver and Riku was now the attacker.

And it was the perfect idea.

Sora drove very fast, but dodged every wall and made it so that not too many Heartless would attack his partner at once. Riku fought fiercely and strongly, and even figured out how to use certain magic spells like Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga. They were unstoppable.

But again, it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. Something just _had _to mess it all up.

**LEVEL 02 SCORES:**

**1ST: HAYNER AND VANITAS  
****EXP (TOTAL): LVL01 (1010) + LVL02 (1120) = 2130**

**2ND: AXEL AND KAITO  
EXP (TOTAL): LVL01 (840) + LVL02 (1040) = 1880**

**3RD: ROXAS AND VENTUS  
EXP (TOTAL): LVL01 (790) + LVL02 (1000) = 1790**

**4TH: SORA AND RIKU  
EXP (TOTAL): LVL01 (1140) + LVL02 (600) = 1740**

"WHAT?!" Sora shouted, his voice echoing throughout the whole gaming arena.

"Switching places is against the rules," Tron informed. "Because of that, the EXP you earned in this challenge is cut in half." He pressed a button on the device on his wrist. "You two earned 1200 points. It is now reduced to 600."

The two in last place fell to the ground in defeat.

"Hikari... I'm so sorry..." Riku whispered, hiding his face behind his bangs. "It was my idea."

The brown-haired boy smiled and patted him on the back, "Hey, it doesn't matter. I really don't care about the scores. We had fun, didn't we?"

Aquamarine eyes met with sky blue ones that showed showed nothing but sincereness and happiness. Riku gave him a small smile, "Yeah... we did."

Tron smiled at the scene. "If I could, I'd give you two your points back. That's great companionship right there. That's what a team is all about."

_**LEVEL TWO: COMPLETE**_

_**LEVEL THREE ABOUT TO COMMENCE**_

"No Mystery Boxes and no walls. Just you guys... and Darkside. You all have to work as a team." And with that, he disappeared.

"Did he say... Darkside?" Sora gulped.

All of a sudden, the ground began to shake and this huge, dark, monstrous figure appeared before them. It glared at them with its yellow eyes and clawed at them, hardly missing the Uchiyama twins.

Immediately after, every cycle was rolling away, except for one.

"Hikari, what's wrong? Why aren't you driving?" Riku asked, worried that they'd get hit by the monster.

"I..." he blanched. "It's him."

"What?"

"I've seen him in my dreams... no... in my nightmares," he shivered. He remembered starting the game _Kingdom Hearts I _when he was a child. In the beginning of the game, when the main character was in _Dive to the Heart_ and was being swallowed up by darkness, was Sora's least favorite part. It scared him, to say the least. The main character looked just like him, so he felt like it _was _him going through all these adventures. Getting consumed by darkness was his biggest fear, and Darkside made sure to mock him about it in his nightmares. "The darkness... it swallowed me up. _He _swallowed me up..."

The Heartless was getting closer to them. "Hikari, we have to move _now!_ He'll take us both if we don't!"

The brunet remained silent.

"Look, Hikari... no... _Sora,_" Hearing the introvert call him by his first name shocked said Sora. Riku only called people by their first names if he respected them. "I've been in darkness my whole life. But when I see you talk to everyone, laugh and smile like there's nothing wrong, it's taught me... It's taught me that deep down... There's a light that never goes out!"

_Vroom!_

"You're right, Riku. I can't let myself, or anyone here, be consumed by it," the boy with hair-defying gravity smiled as he drove them away from the creature. He caught up to the rest of his house mates and grinned, "ALRIGHT EVERYONE, THIS GUY'S GONNA BE A TOUGH ONE. BUT IF WE ALL WORK TOGETHER, WE CAN DEFINITELY BEAT HIM."

They all turned to him and nodded.

"I NEED ALL KEYBEARERS WITH ME. HAYNER, AXEL, HOP ONTO THE SAME MOTORCYCLE AND DISTRACT THAT HEARTLESS," the boys obeyed. Hayner and Kairi exchanged places. "MAKE AS MUCH NOISE AS YOU CAN, CONFUSE HIM, TAKE HIM AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN FROM US, CLEAR?"

"CRYSTAL!" the duo exclaimed simultaneously as they sped off to do as they were told.

"ROXAS, VENTUS, VANITAS, KAIRI-" both he and Kairi felt a slight pain in their chest, "KAITO. FOLLOW ME!" they all followed the leader, who stopped at the maximum of the arena. "If you can all combine the powers of your Keyblades together, you can create the strongest combo that can definitely defeat Darkside!"

"Sora, where's yours?" Kairi asked.

"I lost it in the middle of level two. But it's all right because... I trust in all of you!"

They all lifted up their weapons and gathered up as much power as they were able to. A huge, powerful sphere appeared in the air, growing larger and larger by the second.

In the other side of the arena, Axel and Hayner drove in circles and made the ugliest faces they can.

The dirty blond stuck his tongue out, "Can't catch me, you big fat poophead!"

From afar, they head someone yell, "AXEL, HAYNER, TURN AROUND!"

"TURN AROUND, PYRO," Hayner shrieked. The aforementioned pyro obeyed and turned right around, driving to where everyone else was.

"NOW!" Sora shouted. The Keybearers threw the sphere at the enemy, who screamed in pain as it consumed him.

_**LEVEL THREE: COMPLETE**_

* * *

Tron facepalmed. "Switching partners isn't allowed."

"But we didn't switch partners, I just hopped onto Vanita-" Kairi began.

"That counts as switching partners... well, according to the rules we have here in Space Paranoids," he sighed.

"Why didn't you tell us then?"

"It's written in the lobby. Under 'READ BEFORE PLAYING'. Come on, guys... Are you all really that lazy?" he shook his head. "Doing that cuts your score in half. And since this was a challenge where you all had to work together, the whole score overall, each one of your EXP points added up together, is affected."

A hologram appeared before them.

**LEVEL 03 SCORE (TOTAL): 10 000**

**FINAL SCORE: 17 540/2 = 8770**

"You guys would've beaten the high score."

They all groaned.

"But... that was amazing teamwork. I've never seen a group of people work so well together."

"And it's all thanks to Captain America over here," Axel smiled as he ruffled Sora's hair.

"Hey, not really..." the brunet scratched the back of his head.

"Don't be so modest, you make a great leader!"

He laughed. "Well... it's all thanks to Riku." They all turned to the fidgeting boy, who didn't seem so invisible anymore. "If it weren't for him, we'd have all been bruised up by now. What he told me really helped me and motivated me to take up the leader role."

They all turned to the anti-social boy.

"Good job, Riku!" Kairi grinned.

"Told you he was worth congratulating!" Axel exclaimed.

"Thank you so much..." he whispered happily.

"So, how about that, Hayner?" Kairi smirked, hands on her hips.

The blond walked over to him and held a hand out.

"How about we start all over again? I'm Hayner Sasaki. Nice to meet you."

The silver-haired boy shook it.

"I'm..." a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "I'm Riku Miyano. It's nice to meet you, too."

After years of being invisible to everyone... these people...

They were able to see him.

* * *

**A/N: **Gave Sora and Riku personality, aw yiss. x] Sora is especially adorable I find. Like omg. He's so cute I just wanna punch him in the face. Hope you liked this chapter LOL.

Please review! :)


	5. Sora the Explorer

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 05

**Sora the Explorer**

"Everybody, listen up, I have a very important announcement to make," Axel said, standing before his seven housemates, whom he all called into the living room that day.

"You're pregnant," Hayner said boredly.

"I'm gonna set you on fire."

"What did you wanna tell us?" Riku asked in a hushed voice.

"I..." The redhead paused dramatically, "Am bored."

Everyone in the room, except for Axel himself of course, groaned.

"No one cares," a certain Uchiyama twin replied, rolling his eyes. "Why should your boredom be our concern?"

"What's with the attitude, goldilocks?"

"You piss me off. You always have to say something stupid, useless, obvious or completely out of the question. Seriously, just shut up _for once._"

"You say Kaito has PMS, but clearly, _you're_ the one with PMS.

"What'd you say?!"

"You heard me, Ven_tits_!"

"I'm Roxas, moron!"

"...You heard me, Rucksack!"

"You picking a fight?" He stood up and made his way towards Axel.

The pyromaniac took out his lighter. "Don't make me burn you." Vanitas glared daggers at the redhead after he said _burn_.

"Quit it, both of you," Kairi sighed exasperatedly. "Honestly. I thought we all became a family after Double Dash Racing three days ago."

"Well, you thought wrong," Roxas snarled.

"Guys, let's do something. Please, I'm dying here," the flame-haired boy begged.

"Then die in silence," Vanitas spat as he lied down on the couch, attempting to fall back asleep after being woken up from his nap.

"LET'S GO EXPLORING!" Sora suddenly exclaimed, jumping up in the air.

They all gave him weird looks. "...Why?" Ventus asked.

"Destiny Islands is beautiful. The people are really nice here and very welcoming, and there's even a little play island not too far from away. And you guys wanna know something cool about this place?" he asked, they all gestured for him to go on, "It's shaped as a star, symbolizing dreams, hopes and wishes. Around it are five other islands: Beast's Castle, Halloween Town, Neverland, Land of Dragons and Wonderland. Let's go explore each one!"

"I like the idea," Kairi smiled. "But hold on... aren't all of you from here?"

"Riku and I are from here," Sora grinned.

"I'm from Twilight Town," Hayner said.

"Us, too!" the Uchiyama twins exclaimed.

"The Badlands," was Vanitas' muffled answer.

"Radiant Garden," Axel said.

"So, most of you travel almost five hours by train, an hour by plane or by metro to go see Namine every day?" the cross-dresser asked in amazement.

"Well... yeah. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to take. Anything to fix my problem," Vanitas said in a monotone. That was such a sad thing to say, but he made it sound like it was nothing.

"That's amazing... Well anyways, come on, I want all of you to come explore this place, and the other islands, too!" the red-haired girl exclaimed.

"Can I stay home," Hayner asked in such a monotone that is didn't even sound like a question.

"Nope, you're coming along, too bad." The female redhead stood up and started pushing the lazy boys (Hayner, Vanitas and Ventus) out the door hastily, while Sora, Axel, Riku and Roxas followed closely behind. "Come on, let's go!"

"But it's too early for this," Ventus yawned.

"It's one. In the afternoon."

"Ah, right. Let me correct that: _way _too early."

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Come on, guys, get a move on!"

All eight people exited the Peak 8 Summer Penthouse. Kairi locked the door and walked ahead, leading all seven boys into the familiar streets of Destiny Islands. The sun was shining brightly, and clouds of all shapes and sizes covered the blue sky. They all walked into the Shopping District of the island and were each greeted by kind passer-bys who looked so happy, as if the whole world was perfect.

Vanitas shivered. "What is this disgustingly happy atmosphere?"

"This is where Sora comes from," Roxas pointed a finger at the brunet, who smiled widely, greeted many people enthusiastically and skipped along the streets. He could've sworn there were sparkles around the boy. "_Everything_ is disgustingly happy."

They went to bakeries to get something to eat, electronic stores to check out the new consoles and games and an ice cream stand to buy a frosty treat to cool themselves off on that hot day. Once they were done eating their ice cream, Kairi served as their leader and lead them to the south part of Destiny Islands. Boats of all sizes floated above the water's surface, many anchored to keep them from floating away and a few sailing off to bring its passengers to their desired location.

"Welcome to Port Royal," a flamboyant man in pirate clothes greeted as he made unusual hand gestures. "Oh, hello Sora. It's been a while since you've visited."

The aforementioned brunet scratched the back of his head, "Been really busy. Anyways, guys," he looked at us, then turned to the man once again. "This is my friend Jack Sparrow. He'll get us a boat. Well, it _is _his job after all."

"Hm, there should be a _Captain_ in there," he said, making another funny gesture. "Nice to meet you all. So, where to?"

"We wanna visit each island!"

"Each island?"

"Yup! A boat for eight, please."

Jack Sparrow scanned all the boats that weren't reserved. It took him a while before he turned to us and said, "I'll give you the Black Pearl." He pointed over at a ridiculously large boat that was obviously too much for a small group of eight people.

"Uh... that's a little too much..." Sora sweatdropped as well as the rest of us.

"I see," the black-haired man took another look at the boats before turning back to his friend and throwing him a piece of paper. "The big one at the end of the dock. Don't forget to present your paper to Barbosa over there."

All eight of them all said their thanks as they passed by Jack to make their way to their assigned boat. The spiky-haired brunet gave the paper to an old man who stamped it.

"Don't lose your paper. You'll need it to go from island to island," he said. "We'll have Will Turner steer for you."

"Why can't I steer?" 'Captain' Sparrow cried.

"Because you're gonna crash it like always!"

They all entered the boat and sat on the benches, waiting for this 'Will Turner' to come. About two minutes later, a brown-haired man hopped into the watercraft and stood before them, hands on his hips.

"Nice to meet you, I'm William Turner. Feel free to call me Will. I'll be steering your boat and watching over it while you all go explore the other islands," he said with a warm smile before running over to the steering wheel. Shortly after, the vessel started moving and they were on their way to their first destination: Beast's Castle.

* * *

**BEAST'S CASTLE**

"Like I said, I'll be waiting here!" Will exclaimed, waving as he watched Kairi and her patients (well, technically Namine's patients) go.

The group walked around the little village, passing by bakeries and cafes to buy some lunch and libraries to see if they had any interesting books they could borrow.

"Are any of you looking for anything in particular?" asked the kind librarian.

"Um... I... u-uh..." Riku stuttered nervously. Embarrassed, he grabbed the nearest person, Vanitas, and shielded himself behind him.

"What the heck are you doing?!" the raven-haired boy glared at the introvert.

"Are any of you looking for anything in particular?" the old man repeated.

"Uh, nope, I think we're all good. Just looking around and stuff."

"Oh, yes, of course. I'll be by the desk if you need anything," he said as he made his way to the front of the library. Vanitas then turned to Riku, who was still hiding behind him like a shy little kid hiding behind his mother.

"Are you serious right now?" the boy with jet black hair asked as he shook his head. When he received no answer, he sighed exasperatedly. "You gotta learn how to communicate with people. I mean, I know you're anti-social and all, but just... I don't know, talk to people like how you talk to us," He received no answer. "Riku. I'm trying to help you out here. And that's something big, coming from someone like me." Vanitas waited for what seemed like fifteen seconds and once again received no answer. He eventually grew annoyed and walked off, leaving poor Riku to drown in embarrassment and shame.

"Hey, guys!" Sora suddenly exclaimed. "I just remembered something!"

His companions turned to him. The brunet didn't say anything and they all just stared at each other in silence, a look of confusion on each person's face.

"...Well?" the twins said at the same time, making hand gestures for him to go on. "What is it?"

"Ever heard of this island's folk tale? And why it's named _Beast's Castle?_"

"I don't think so... Tell us," Hayner said, munching on a coconut bun.

"Legend has it there once lived a handsome prince who, although had everything his heart desired, he was spoiled, selfish and unkind. One night, an old beggar woman offered him a single rose in exchange for shelter from the bitter cold. However, repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince turned her away. But she warned him never to judge a person by their appearance, for true beauty can always be found within. When he dismissed her again, the woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen no kindness in his heart. So, as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and cast a spell on the castle and on all those who lived there. The beast concealed himself within the castle walls with a magic mirror serving as his only window to the outside world. And the rose the woman gave him was actually an enchanted rose that would continue to bloom until his twenty first year. If he could find someone to love and have that love returned, the spell would be broken. Many years had passed and he lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love... a beast?

"However, just when he thought all hope was completely lost, a beautiful woman named Belle came into his life. She sacrificed her freedom for her father, whom the beast had captured. When she tried to run away at one point, she was being chased by hungry wolves on her way back to the village. Right when she thought she was going to be eaten, the beast came to her rescue. He saved her life from the vicious wolves, and in return, she decided to stay. They spent their days keeping each other company and eventually fell in love with each other.

"But one night, after dancing in the ballroom together, Belle suddenly felt homesick and wanted to see her father, even if for a little while. The beast lead her into the West Wing and revealed to her a magic mirror that would let her see whatever she desired. She asked to see her father and it shone, granting her wish. On the mirror, appeared her father who was, without a single doubt, sick. She grew worried and, because he loved her too much, he decided to set her free. She thanked him, then rushed out of the castle to go find her father, leaving the beast heartbroken.

"When she returned to town, a man named Gaston tried to trick her into marrying him, but to no avail. Jealous of her relationship with the beast, the man and his crew barged into the castle, hoping to kill the beast, but ended up killing himself by falling off the roof of the castle and disappearing into the darkness below. The beast, injured, climbed onto the balcony with the help of Belle. The rose had but very few petals left. The beast knew it was too late, and the injury sent waves of excruciating pain throughout his body. Instead, he just lay down, waiting for death to take over him. He told Belle how he was happy he was able to see her one last time before falling into a deep slumber. Shocked and heartbroken, Belle broke down in tears and mumbled those three powerful words: I LOVE YOU. She was just in time, as the last petal fell right after those words escaped her mouth. Rays of light began to fall from the sky around them as the beast was lifted in the air. The spell was broken. He transformed into his former self once again, as well as those who lived in the castle and the castle itself. Everything was right again. And thus the story of a young woman named Belle, who learned to never judge a book by its cover, but instead learning to see what was beneath the exterior. This enchanting tale attracts many people, which is possibly why it is one of the most visited islands."

Silence.

"Sora, you literally just summarized Disney's version of _Beauty and the Beast,_" Kairi massaged her temples.

Sora smiled sheepishly. "Okay, yeah pretty much. But it's a true story, did you know? Disney based the movie off of this island and its legend. The castle should be enough proof," he pointed out the window. A white castle could be seen in the distance. "It used to be some creepy, abandoned place that no one even dared to visit. But after the movie and _Kingdom Hearts _came out, they cleaned up the place and called it Beast's Castle," he explained. "Same goes for the other islands. The Disney movies are all based off of their legends. _Mulan _and Land of Dragons, _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ and Halloween Town,_ Peter Pan_ and Neverland,_ Alice in Wonderland_ and Wonderland. To be honest, I think the islands were re-named after Disney movies just to attract tourists."

"Yeah, I remember when Neverland used to be called the Greenlands or something."

Sora nodded, remembering as well. "Putting that aside, let's go explore the castle now, then!"

"We shouldn't spend too much time here, there are four more isla-"

"Hey, we won't stay long."

Kairi sighed. "Alright, fine."

_At the gates of Beast's Castle..._

"Dayum, the Disney crew really did their research," Axel whistled.

The castle looked just like the Disney movie's version after the beast's spell was broken. The castle's walls were white, albeit faded, and statues of angels sat on various places on the roof. Like Cogsworth mentioned in the movie, the castle 'utilized architecture dating back to the Baroque period'.

"Alright everyone, stick together, we don't want to get separated," the pyromaniac said in a motherly fashion.

Sora took a step forward. "Vamos, amigos!" Everyone looked at him with a 'what the eff' look on their faces. The brunet suddenly stopped in his tracks, then turned to his fellow explorers. "Wait a second! To get to our destination-"

"We don't have a destination," Roxas said flatly.

"Yeah, all we're gonna do is get in, walk around, then get out," Ventus added flatly as well.

Disregarding the previous comments, he continued, "We need help from... the map!" The _Dora the Explorer _impersonator took out a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. "First, we have to-"

"Can you not," everyone, except for Sora, said at the same time, in the same tone.

"Wow, you guys are boring."

They all walked past the gates and opened the door to enter the former master's home. They stepped inside and were met with sparkling waxed tiles, pearly white statues, old-fashioned decor and of course, a welcoming atmosphere.

"Bonjour!" said a man with a French accent dressed up in a candelabra costume. "What brings you here today?"

"U-uh, we're-" Riku began nervously.

"EXPLORING!" Sora exclaimed. "That's all right, _oui?_"

'Lumiere' chuckled, "Of course. Be my guest."

_In the ballroom..._

"Look at that painting!" Kairi exclaimed in amazement, pointing at the ceiling. "It's beautiful! And that chandelier!"

Hayner grinned, "Agreed! Dayum, Disney's got this place spot on."

In the background, Axel danced around the ballroom with Roxas, who had an annoyed look painted on his features. The blond was lifted off the floor thanks to his dance patner, his feet dangling helplessly, much to the amusement of his spectators (his house mates) who tried to contain their laughter. The redhead held him up only because he knew Roxas wouldn't have agreed, so dragging him into it with was the only way.

"TALE AS OLD AS TIME, SONG AS OLD AS RHYME..." Axel sang off-tune. "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!"

"Put me down," the sun-kissed blond ordered.

"No, it's okay."

"Amigos!" Sora the Explorer exclaimed, pointing at his watch. "Time to head on to our next destination: Halloween Town!"

* * *

**HALLOWEEN TOWN**

"BOYS AND GIRLS OF EVERY AGE, WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO SEE SOMETHING STRANGE?" Axel sang off-tune once again, causing his house mates to cover their ears.

"Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween," a man dressed up as Jack Skellington said, showing the way.

The crew entered the gates of this creepy, mysterious town. However, a bomb went off five steps in, startling most of them. Axel and Hayner held onto each other and both screamed girlishly, Vanitas stood in place unamused, Roxas jumped into his brother's arms as they both shrieked loudly, Riku fainted, Sora covered his ears and eyes as he screamed and Kairi was on the floor holding Riku in her arms, trying to wake him up.

Three kids emerged from the shadows, laughing their bunbuns off. One was dressed up as a witch, one as a devil and the other as a skeleton.

"That was hilarious!" the witch exclaimed, cackling.

"Agreed!" the skeleton laughed.

"You should've seen your faces!" the devil pointed at the group, who were all pissed off at the moment.

With straight faces on, everyone in the group (except for Riku, who fainted, and Kairi, who was still trying to wake him up) made a circle around the pranksters, glaring daggers at all three of them. The tricksters all cowered in fear.

"Wh-what are you doing?" the witch nervously asked.

"What are your names?" Vanitas snarled.

"Lock..." the boy in the devil costume gulped.

"Shock..." the girl in the witch costume said, looking down.

"Barrel!" the boy in the skeleton said a little too happily, earning him a smack on the back of his head from Shock.

"Hey, that hurt!" Barrel cried, slapping the one who hit him across the face.

"You...!" she charged at her target, who dodged, and ended up punching Lock's stomach instead.

The boy rubbed his stomach painfully. "Why'd you hit me?! I didn't do anything!"

Soon enough, all three kids jumped at each other and started wrestling each other. Annoyed at this, Vanitas pulled a scary face and growled at them. Lock, Shock and Barrel stopped what they were doing and just stared at the older boy in fear.

"Do you know what we do to naughty brats like you?" the black-haired boy asked darkly.

They gulped.

_Minutes later..._

The silver-haired teen stirred in Kairi's arms. He tried to open his eyes, but ended up squinting because of the sudden light.

"Riku? Riku, can you hear me?"

"...Dad?"

A laugh. "Not quite."

Riku fully opened his eyes this time, "Kaito?"

The auburn-haired girl nodded. "Thank goodness you're all right, otherwise we'd have to cut today's adventure short."

"Thank you...?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that!" she held her hands up in defense. "It's just... everyone seems to be having fun. It may not look like it, but-"

"We're back," Vanitas as well as the rest were walking back from who-knows-where.

"Where have you guys been?" the cross-dresser raised a brow.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Nowhere important. Come on, let's head on to the next island before we get blamed."

_At Curly Hill..._

"What happened to you three?" a woman dressed up as Sally asked, cocking her head to the side.

Lock, Shock and Barrel were all hanging upside down, tied up together and mouths duct taped shut. They all tried to explain what happened, but of course, all the woman received were muffled answers.

She sweatdropped. "...How about I untie you first?"

* * *

**NEVERLAND**

"I BELIEVE I COULD FLYYYY!" Axel sang as he jumped off a cliff.

Roxas shrieked in horror. "AXEL, WHAT THE F-"

_Splash!_

All seven of them rushed to the edge of the cliff and looked down to find the redhead floating above the water like a dead body. Seconds later, he lifted his head up and started hacking violently. When he was done, he clutched his stomach.

"HOLY. FREAKING. MOTHER OF CHAKRAMS," he cried. "BELLY-FLOPPING FROM THAT HIGH UP IS A NO-NO. OH MY ACHIN'... DAMN."

The ones at the top of the cliff looked at each other, read each other's minds, nodded and jumped off at the same time... except for two.

"KAITO, VENTUS, YOU JERKS!" Sora laughed, each word getting less audible as the distance between them increased.

The ones who jumped off all underestimated how high the cliff was and all screamed the whole drop, some experiencing the same fate as Axel.

"MY STOMACH IS BURNING," Hayner announced to the whole world, tears sliding down his face.

"SON OF A B... UTT," Sora 'swore'. The ones who got hurt were being laughed at by those who landed safely.

"Kaito! Ventus! Your turns!" Axel called out to them.

Kairi turned to Ventus. "Go ahead."

The blue-eyed blond raised a brow. "You're not coming?"

"No, I... I don't feel like it."

He shrugged. "If you say so." He took a few steps back, then began running towards the edge of the cliff. The moment he jumped off the cliff, he turned to face his therapist.

"See you at the bottom!" he exclaimed, waving bye as he fell down in a canon ball position.

_Splash!_

Ven protruded from the water, still laughing. "That was fun! Thank goodness I didn't belly-flop," he grinned.

"Why did Kaito come?" Sora asked, looking up.

"He didn't wanna get wet or something. Boring dude," he shrugged, swimming over to a mountain of rocks to sit upon to rest.

"Axel. Do not," Roxas warned.

"I don't know when..." Axel began singing an all too familiar song, already in the wrong key.

"Axel."

'I don't know how..."

"Please."

"But I know something's starting right now!"

"Oh, forget it."

"Watch and you'll see, someday I'll be... PART OF YOUR WORLD!" he sang, doing the same action Ariel did in _The Little Mermaid _as waves crashed against the rock he was on.

"Hey boys," a feminine voice greeted.

"Huh?" all seven boys said at the same time. They all turned around only to be met with girls dressed up as mermaids.

"I don't think I've seen you here before," said one with brown hair and a pink shell bra.

"Uh, this is the first time visiting Neverland," Hayner said. The mermaids all turned to each other, smiling.

"How about we go grab something to eat later on?" a blond one with an orange shell bra asked.

* * *

_Well, hiking up that cliff was a colossal waste of time, _Kairi thought while running down the cliff to join her group. When she reached the bottom, she walked over to the shore and searched for her boys.

"Where did they go?" she asked out loud.

"Uh, n-no thank you..." a familiar voice said.

"Riku?" Kairi called out.

"Come on, there's a little cafe just around the corner," said a female voice. Namine's sister followed the sound the voices were coming from and found all seven of her patients surrounded by mermaids. She scowled.

"Sorry, we already have plans for the day, so..." Sora said, trying to reject them politely.

A black-haired mermaid swam up to him. "Hey... you're pretty cute!" All of a sudden, the brunet was being surrounded by all the mermaids, who were each begging for his attention. Kairi scowled even more.

"Hey, how about a little kiss?" one of the mermaids asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

"E-excuse me?" Sora stuttered, dumbfounded.

_You must be kidding me, _the auburn-haired girl thought angrily.

"You heard me. A kiss!" the mermaid repeated.

The brunet answered immediately after hearing that clarification, "Not possible."

Her jaw dropped. "And why not?"

"Because..." he sighed, taking a quick glance at his house mates. _They're all gonna find out eventually, anyway._ "I already have Kairi."

Upon hearing that, Kairi's eyes widened. Her heart beat increased drastically.

"Kairi?" the girl scoffed. "Alright, fine. Whatever."

"HEY DIMWITS," the tomboy yelled, an evident blush on her cheeks. This grabbed the attention of her boys, and even a few mermaids. _Hah, some of those bimbos answered to it._ "Next island?"

"Please."

* * *

**LAND OF DRAGONS**

"I'M NEVER GONNA CATCH MY BREATH. Saygoodbyetothosewhoknewme. Boy WAS I A FOOL in SCHOOL for cutting GYMMM! THIS guy's got 'em scared to DEATH! Hope he doesn't see right through me~! NOW I REALLY WISH THAT I KNEW HOW TO SWIMMM-"

"AXEL CAN YOU STOP SINGING YOUR FRICKING DISNEY SONGS AFTER SETTING FOOT ON A NEW ISLAND."

_I'll Make a Man out of You _blasted from the speakers. As you can probably tell, Axel was imitating each character's voices in the previously mentioned song.

This island was known for its festivals. There were booths, contests, challenges and even fireworks after ten in the evening. A replica of the Emperor's Palace was found on the north side of the island, which served as a resort. The palace was filled with luxury and relaxation, though most visitors would stay solely for the breath-taking view at night. This island was always lively, friendly and very traditional. One of the most visited places was the Matchmaking House, which was run by a, quite frankly, scary and intimidating woman, much like in the movie _Mulan_. She would speak the truth, but can be very straight-forward and mean sometimes. A statue of the Chinese hero, Fa Mulan, could be found in a certain area of the island. She took her father's place in the army, disguised herself as a man, defeated the Huns and saved all of China. Many people come to bow before the statue, meaning they respect and thank Fa Mulan for her bravery.

The group all walked around the little island, admiring its traditional decor and activities. Lanterns of the colors red and gold hung between booths, serving as the only source of illumination. Booths either sold food, traditional Chinese objects or were games to play in order to win a prize.

"GUYS, OH MY GOSH," Axel pointed over to a tall pole with an arrow at the very top. "LET'S TRY IT." The pyro rushed over to it and stood in line, listening to a man dressed up as Shang, who was currently explaining to the crowd what to do.

"Your goal is to climb all the way up, get the arrow, then climb all the way down," the Asian man explained. "However, you will be using these," another man walked over to him and handed him two large medallions. Shang lifted up his right hand, then his left hand, each holding a medallion. "This represents strength. And this represents discipline. Who wants to go first?"

"ME!" the redhead exclaimed. He rushed over to Shang and grabbed the two items. He underestimated how heavy they were and ended up dropping them from shock. He laughed nervously, "Sorry."

The volunteer walked over to the pole, gulping as he looked up at the arrow. He tied the medallions to his wrist and started up the pole. Not even halfway through and not even fifteen seconds in, Axel fell to the ground with a loud_ Thud!_, hurting himself, andembarrassing himself and his house mates.

"...I think I left my dick up there," he squeaked.

* * *

"Sora the Explorer," Axel addressed. "I believe we need your help to get to our destination."

The brunet's face lit up. "Si, si, where would you like to go?"

"How do we get to the Matchmaker's?"

"To get to the Matchmaker's House, we'll have to-"

"Oh, nevermind. It's right there."

"You did that on purpose to break my heart."

_At the Matchmaking House..._

"Recite the final admonition," the matchmaker snarled. "If neither are able to, I'm afraid I cannot help any of you."

"WHAT? Wow, so bm," Hayner said. (Side note: BM means bad-mannered.) "Look lady, there's no sign saying-"

"Fulfill your duties calmly and... respectfully. Reflect before you snack... Act! This shall bring you honor and glory," Kairi quoted, even reciting the character's mistake. _Mulan_ was her favorite Disney heroine and movie. She remembered acting it out with Sora. She frowned at the memory.

The matchmaker was thoroughly impressed. "Good."

The Uchiyama twins gave the redhead a thumbs up. "Good job, Kaito!"

It was needless to say that the whole group had the exact same experience as the Chinese heroine when she went to see the matchmaker.

"YOU ALL MAY LOOK LIKE GROOMS, BUT YOU WILL NEVER BRING YOUR FAMILY HONOR!" the dragon lady screeched before slamming the door shut.

"...You so did that on purpose," Sora smirked at Kairi.

"Oh yeah."

"Hey guys," the twins said, pointing at their watches. "We should leave now if you still wanna visit Wonderland. It's already four thirty."

"Right! Vamos!" Sora exclaimed, running off.

Vanitas scoffed. "He's such a kid."

* * *

**WONDERLAND**

"AXEL WHY ARE YOU BURNING THOSE FLOWERS?!"

"Sh, let him, as long as he's not singing."

A security guard wearing a playing card costume saw what the pyromaniac was doing and rushed off to who-knows-where. Seconds later, a loud, angry voice yelled, "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"

"Guys... I think we should go now..." Riku gulped, seeing a deck of oversized playing cards running in their direction.

"RUN!" the boy with camo pants, Hayner, yelled as he took off. The rest of the group followed suit, screaming their heads off.

"GUYS, IN HERE!" Axel shouted, running into the hedge maze. They all followed him, too scared and worried at the thought of being caught that they didn't even think of the consequences that would follow once they entered.

When the cards saw them enter the labyrinth, they all stopped dead in their tracks. "What idiots!" they all exclaimed, laughing their heads off. "It'll take them _hours _to find the exit!

And they were right.

Let's fast forward, shall we?

"We got here at around four forty five. And now it's seven," Ventus said through gritted teeth. "Thanks a lot, you piece of shit," he glared at Axel. The rest of the group turned to the redhead to glare at him as well.

"Why are you all looking at me like it's my fault?" he asked.

"Are you serious?" Vanitas growled.

"Yeah, it's obviously Sora's fault," he accused, pointing a finger at said Sora.

"WHAT?!" the brunet shouted, offended beyond belief. "How is it _my _fault?!"

"You have a _map, _we could've been out of here if you just knew how to read one!" he snatched the piece of paper out of Sora's hands. He unfolded it to find a grocery list.

"DID YOU HONESTLY THINK IT WAS A REAL MAP? IT WAS A JOKE. 'SORA' AND 'DORA' SOUND ALIKE, THAT'S WHY I KEPT MAKING JOKES ABOUT IT ALL DAY AND FRICK, NO ONE EVEN LAUGHED AT IT."

"Oh..." was his smart answer. "Well, it's all you guys' fault then."

"WHAT?!" they all stared at him with fire in their eyes.

"Why didn't you guys stop me from entering this place if you knew we were gonna get los-"

"DON'T BLAME OTHERS, YOU JERK!" they screamed angrily. Like savage animals, they jumped at him and started beating him up. "IT'S YOUR FAULT, ADMIT IT!"

"G-guys..." said a soft voice. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the owner of the voice, Riku. "I think I found the exit." They all rushed to the platinum-haired boy's side and followed closely behind as he lead the way. In just a matter of seconds, they were out of the maze; they were finally free.

"I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA BE LOST FOREVER!" Hayner screamed, kissing the ground.

"I'M CRYING." Sora hollered, actually crying tears of joy.

Axel began to dance. "We did it, we did it, we did it, yeah! Lo hicimos! We di-"

_**SLAP!**_

"Come on, guys. I think Will waited long enough," Kairi smiled innocently, dusting her hands off after slapping a certain someone across the face with all her might. "By the way, singing and dancing to that song is _Sora's _job."

On their way out, Riku was able to swipe a few free samples.

_Back at the ship..._

"So?" Will Turner asked, watching his crew hop into the boat one by one. "Brought any food back for me? I'm starving and waited for you guys for way too long." Riku, the only kind soul in the group, threw him some raspberry tarts; the free samples he took earlier. Will caught it and popped them in his mouth, thanking the silver-haired boy. "Back to Destiny Islands?"

"Actually... can you drop us off at the docks?" Kairi asked.

"Come on Kaito, let's go back home, I'm exhausted," Hayner whined.

Ignoring the blond, she continued, "Please Will?"

"Sure."

* * *

**DESTINY ISLANDS; THE DOCKS**

"See that?" she pointed at a little island in the distance. "That's the play island."

"How are we gonna get all the way there from here?" Axel asked.

"We're gonna swim there."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? IT'S GONNA TAKE US LIKE THREE DAYS."

The berry-haired girl slapped her forehead. "You're such an idiot, oh my gosh. How does my sis- _cousin_ even deal with you?" She slapped herself once again, but mentally this time, for almost saying _sister. _Luckily, no one noticed. "There are dinghies right there," she walked over to the edge of the docks and pointed at all the small boats 'parked' underneath it.

"We could've just asked our boatman-thing-whatever to drop us off there," Hayner said.

"But Will wasted a whole day taking us from island to island, he deserves some rest and-" Kairi began. She stopped when Hayner raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing her story. "Okay fine. No one goes there cause everyone in town thinks it's prohibited. If people saw Will drop us off there, they'll probably realize that it isn't, then they'll go and tell their friends about it, and more and more people are gonna come and before you know it, every world will find out and they'll all come here and the play island will always be filled with people and I don't want that to happen cause it's a really special place for me and I'm a selfish bish," she rambled, gasping for air when she finished.

Sora patted her head, "Don't worry, Kairito. I feel the same way."

"You just called him Kairito..." Riku pointed out.

The brunet blushed, "No, I didn't!"

"Hey, who is this Kairi chick anyway?" Axel asked as Kairi flinched.

"Namine's sister," Sora replied.

"I know that. I meant, what is she to you?"

He frowned, "Can we talk about this another time?"

Hearing the sadness in his voice, Axel decided not to push the subject, "Fine."

"Four, five... There are only six dinghies," Roxas counted, all the while changing the subject.

"Huh? Oh yeah, only about six people knew about this place, so..." Kairi trailed off. _I wonder what happened to Tidus, Selphie and Wakka?_

"Um, four people can go solo, and the remaining four people can split into groups of two..." Riku suggested shyly.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Axel said.

"I call solo."

"Me, too."

"Solo."

"Same."

"Roxas and I will share one."

"So, that leaves..." Kairi gulped and turned around to face her partner. "You and me, huh Kaito?"

Sora Hikari.

The redhead forced a smile, "Yeah... guess it does."

The group all untied the little boats from the wooden pole and jumped onto them.

"Let's race!" Axel exclaimed, and left with a head start.

Vanitas yawned, "Yeah okay, I'm down." The black-haired boy began rowing his boat in the direction of the island.

"That's not fair, you damn cheater!" Hayner yelled angrily and left as well.

Shrugging, Riku decided to join in as well and rowed as fast as he could in an attempt to catch up to those who already left.

"Bro, hurry up!" Roxas exclaimed as he shook the boat, eager to leave already.

"Okay, give me a second!" Ventus, who just got in the dinghy, said. He was standing up, wobbling as he tried to balance himself in order to not fall off. His younger brother was looking ahead, rowers in hand, jumping up and down in his seat already.

"You're done?" Since his big brother didn't answer right away, the blond assumed it meant he was. "LET'S GO!" He violently pushed the water with his rowers, a huge grin pasted on his face.

_SPLASH!_

"We're _so _gonna beat them, right Ven?" Roxas asked as he rowed faster, his eyes locked on his opponents. When he received no answer, he tried again, "Ven?" He turned around and saw a head with spiky blond hair floating on the water's surface in the distance. The younger Uchiyama twin rowed all the way back to the docks slowly. He stopped about two meters away from his fuming brother, trying so hard to hold in his laughter. "...I-I'm sorry... pfft!" He gave in and started laughing hysterically.

With a straight face on, Ventus swam over to the boat, and flipped it over.

"Idiots," Kairi rolled her eyes as she watched her house mates go. She waited for Sora to get into the boat before she could. "Why must they always bring up a competition?"

"...Think we can beat them?" Sora asked, smirking.

"Hell yeah." She grabbed two more rowers for herself and hopped onto the dinghy. "We got this."

"ROW, ROW, ROW, ROW," the brunet said repeatedly so that they'd both row at the same time.

When they'd mess up, instead of yelling at each other like what any of the other boys (besides Axel and Riku because they're sweethearts) would, they'd just laugh it off and go back to rowing.

While Sora was laughing after another mess-up, Kairi noticed a chain dangling on his neck. A part of it was hidden behind the collar of his shirt.

"What's that?" the redhead asked, pointing at the item on his neck.

"Huh?" Sora asked, then followed her finger. "O-oh! My necklace?" he pulled the chain, taking the charm out of its hiding spot.

Kairi's eyes widened.

It was a simple crown necklace. Each movement he made would make it bounce, reflecting the afternoon's sun rays.

She knew exactly where he got that necklace.

"Let's just say... someone very important bought it for me," he smiled sadly. "You probably already know who."

"Sora..." An awkward silence followed.

"Keep talking and we might just pass you!" Hayner shouted, breaking the silence.

In the end, Sora and Kairi kept their title as first place and Axel was sadly last place.

"You had a head start..." Roxas and Ven said simultaneously, both facepalming.

"OKAY WELL WATER'S MY OPPOSING ELEMENT, SO THERE WAS A SMALL CHANCE OF WINNING FOR ME ANYWAY," Axel cried.

"Then why'd you suggest a race?" Sora asked.

"...Cause I thought the water would be nice to fire today..." he frowned.

"Can you _stop _saying things like _that_," Vanitas growled.

"Why are we here anyway?" Hayner asked. "I'm fricking tired from walking around all day."

"You'll see," Kairi smiled.

The only female of the group lead the boys to the other side of the little island. They walked over a wooden bridge, which lead them to a miniature islet with a curved palm tree resting on top. Since it was already seven thirty in the afternoon, the sun was already starting to set. The sky was a mixture of blue, purple, pink, orange and yellow; it looked lovely from where they were. The ocean's waves crashed against the shore, and the wind howled like the swirling storm inside each of them.

Kairi sat on the curved Paopu fruit tree, Sora sat next to her, Riku remained standing with his arms crossed and back against the tree, Vanitas copied, Roxas and Ventus sat Indian-style on the ground, Hayner rested his back against the trunk with his hands behind his head and his legs spread, and finally, Axel sat on the edge of the islet, both feet dangling over it.

They all watched the sunset disappear in the distance together in silence, and watched the sky slowly turn into a dark shade of blue.

* * *

Namine looked over at her cellphone.

"No texts, no missing calls..." she cocked her head to the side. "Kairi hasn't contacted me in a while."

The blonde touched the _Messaging _app on her phone and typed her message down before placing it back on her night stand. She turned her lamp off, then pulled her white blanket over herself.

"I wonder how she's doing..."

_Hey, Kairi! Got any work done so far?_

* * *

**A/N: **"...and the wind howled like the swirling storm inside each of them." I'm laughing so hard, so freaking hard at my own joke. I'M SORRY I COULDN'T RESIST.

Oh-kay, well I'm finally done with the intros. The story will officially start next chapter. And you know what that means?

Drama, romance, feels.

YES. Excited or wut. LOL hope you enjoyed this chapter! It took me three days to finish omg. I don't have a desk, so I had to type it on my bed and FRICK MY BACK IS KILLING ME. D: WELL ANYWAYS, thanks to all those who reviewed/faved/alerted! You guys are such sweethearts. ;w;

Please review! :)


	6. Catharsis

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 06

**Catharsis**

_Hey, Kairi! Got any work done so far?_

"..."

_Of course! They're all doing much better._

Select all. Backspace.

_Yup! They still need some work though..._

Select all. Backspace.

_...no. I'm sorry. ;A;_

* * *

"Catharsis?" Vanitas asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," Kairi replied, writing each of her house mates' names in the light purple notebook Namine gave her. "Any of you know what that means?"

"Nope," all seven boys replied in unison.

Before everyone woke up, Kairi went into the living room and made a circle with the oddly-shaped furniture. Back in high school, her weird tenth grade English teacher proposed that the whole class do a _Magic Circle. _Basically, everyone had to sit around in a circle and confess something. Everyone either ranted non stop, cried their eyeballs out or stormed out of the classroom. It seemed like a stupid idea at the time, but the whole class became a family after it.

And Kairi thought that maybe... they'd all become one after doing this _Magic Circle _thing, too.

"Well, according to Google, it means _the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions,_" the redhead said, putting her phone away.

"Sounds stupid, I'm out," the only black-haired boy in the group said. "Like I'd tell any of you idiots my problems." He got out of his seat, stalked up the long flight of stairs, then entered his room and slammed the door shut.

"What the hell. What a jerk," Hayner muttered.

"Whatever. Doesn't matter, I'm not gonna force him to do this. It's his choice," Kairi said. "Anyone else wanna leave?" No one got up. "Good."

"Who's going first?" Sora asked, scanning the room.

"I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" Axel screamed at the top of his lungs, jumping up from his seat.

"WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY?!" the twins screamed equally as loud.

Ignoring Roxas and Ventus, the pyromaniac decided to go on, "Well... it all started when I was born-"

"Riku, how about you start instead?" the cross-dresser asked, cutting Axel off.

"S-sure... Well, I-" the loner replied, hiding his face from embarrassment.

"Um, I was talki-" the red-haired boy began, offended, interrupting him.

"Shut up, Axel," Kairi said, cutting him off again. "It's very rude to interrupt someone when they're talking. Go on, Riku."

"I've only ever been able to talk about my past with Namine..." the anti-social boy said in a hushed voice.

The only female in the group sighed, "I was afraid of this..." she frowned. "Riku. No, _everyone_. I know you're all open to Namine, and Namine only. Well... she and I are family. A bit of her can be found in me. Just pretend I'm her."

"Okay..." Riku took a deep breath.

"Oh yeah. No judging, no mean comments, no physical contact; nothing. Or I will kill you," she glared at each of them. However, her scary face turned into that of an innocent, smiling one in half a second. She turned to the one who was going first, "Alright, go ahead."

"I... All my life... I-I've been a-a-" he stuttered nervously. His heart was racing and his palms were getting sweaty. He examined everyone's faces in the room. They all looked at him with sincere worry in their eyes, but Riku saw differently.

_They're judging me._

He gulped, feeling the heat rush in his ears. He kept thinking, over and over, negative things such as _"__I keep stuttering, they probably all think I'm stupid..." _or _"Why did I even agree to go here? I'll never be included in the group."_

Then he looked at Kairi. She smiled at him.

"It's all right. Take your time."

And in that moment, he swore he saw Namine.

"Darkness," he said, looking down. His bangs covered his aquamarine eyes. "I've always been surrounded by it."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked worriedly.

"My parents abandoned me when I was just a few months old. I was often told by the director of the orphanage I lived in that it was because they didn't want me in the first place. She felt like it was best I knew the truth," he felt a lump in his throat, but shook it off. "Life at the orphanage was hard. All the kids there made fun of me, pulled pranks on me... Hell, they'd stick gum in my hair and throw my clothes out the window while I was asleep. I don't even know what I did to make them hate me so much," he looked up a bit to see everyone looking at him with sadness in their eyes. "I remember some of them using me as their punching bag after coming home from a bad day. They'd just barge into my room and start punching me. What was unfair though, was that it was always my fault. _I _was the reason why the person had a bad day. _I _was the one who started the fight. _I _was the reason why no one in the orphanage was happy. And because of that, I grew up thinking that everything bad that happened was my fault. I blamed myself for everything."

He was surprised no one cut him off.

He continued, "It was bad enough in the orphanage, but it was a lot worse at school. Every year, I was bullied. Some days, I went without eating because someone stole my lunch money. Some days, I'd go to the principal's office for being blamed on something I didn't even do. Some days, I was pushed against lockers or thrown into trash bins for no apparent reason. Again, when I'd fight back, I was the one who always ended up getting in trouble," he clenched his fists. "I was almost held back a year once because of how low my grades were. I was never able to study because my books were either taken by my bullies or the orphans hid them so well that I couldn't find them. I felt that everyone hated me. I felt that they all looked at me with hate and judgement in their eyes."

"I have a question," Kairi suddenly said. "My cousin told me that you used to wear a blindfold. What's the story behind the it exactly? Like, why did you decide to wear one all of a sudden?"

Riku smiled sadly, "Namine."

_"Huh? What's that sound?" a teenage girl wearing the Destiny Islands uniform asked herself. She followed the sound, which lead her all the way to the roof of the school. There, in the corner, was a boy with silver-colored hair. He was curled up into a ball and-_

_Wait... was he crying?_

_The blonde approached him and knelt down next to him, "Um... excuse me?"_

_The boy flinched, but didn't say a word._

_"Are you all right?"_

_He shook his head, "It's nothing. Leave me alone."_

_"But-"_

_"I don't want anyone to see us together. You might get hurt because of me."_

_"What?"_

_"You can see the hate everyone has for me in their eyes. They'll start looking at you the same way if you stay here any longer."_

_She smiled, "You're a nice person." __The girl stood up and started walking towards the exit. Before going down the steps, she turned to him one last time, "Come back up here tomorrow, same time. I have something to give you. Oh, and if you need to contact me anytime, just ask anyone for Namine Sakashita."_

_She left, leaving the boy all by himself._

He continued his explanation, "She told me it would teach me not to care about what other people thought. When I'd catch someone looking at me, they could be in the happiest mood, but because of the things people have made me live through, I always believed that they were judging me on the inside. Namine told me to wear it because with it on, she thought I could forget about all about it, since I can't see their eyes. So, she trained me. I had to rely on my other senses; I had to learn how to do stuff with the blind fold on. I mastered it quickly because I was so motivated to forget all about it and start anew."

_"A blindfold?" he asked, confused._

_Namine nodded, "With this on, you won't be able to see anyone's eyes. People are obviously gonna stare at you when you put this on, but it doesn't matter, since you won't be able to see their eyes. Therefore, you'll learn to forget about this whole 'everyone is judging me' thing and this'll definitely help you gain more confidence in yourself."_

_"...How am I supposed to see?"_

_"I'll train you. You have to learn to rely on your other senses," she lifted a finger up. "Like Daredevil, the Marvel hero. He's blind, but he can kick butt. Same thing goes for Toph from Avatar- no, not the one with the blue people," she stood up. "Get up. Let's get started."_

Kairi smiled. Her sister was such a good person. "You took it off in the end of our second year of high school... why?"

"She told me to take it off once I've found light."

"And who was your light?"

"Her," he blushed. "I realized how much she's helped me shortly after she graduated. But when I took it off, people started bullying me again. They all thought 'Hey! The blindfold's off! He's wide open!' and attacked me all at once. I wanted to start using the blindfold again, but... they stole it. They tore it to shreds right in front of me. And after that... I was back to square one."

"Riku, I have one question," the red-haired girl said, writing something down in her notebook. "Why are you so scared of being judged?"

"I... I don't know."

"See, this is your problem," she fixed her posture. "You wanna know why people bully you? It's because you let them know you're insecure. You give them an opening. And then you let them do it. You're so lost in your own negative thoughts that you don't even realize you're letting them. You have to stop caring about what everyone thinks. You have to be yourself. I know that sounds super cliché and overused, but that's all I can tell you right now. And hell, if they can't bring themselves to like you, just leave. You'll find people who'll accept you for who you are."

The introvert looked at her with realization in his eyes. How could he have been so stupid?

"Yeah, well, easier said than done," Roxas frowned. "You mind if I give this Magic Circle thing a go?" He asked Riku, who nodded.

"Go ahead," Kairi said, gesturing for him to go on. _Not bad. I'm actually doing pretty good. Well, I hope..._

"Like you all know already, my hatred took over me and..." he smiled sadly, then turned to his brother. He decided to start off awkwardly, "You know, Ven, I've always been jealous of you."

"Me?" his older brother asked, pointing a finger at his face. His twin nodded, looking away.

"I was jealous of you almost all my life. You didn't care what other people thought about you. You were straight-forward; you were never afraid to speak your mind. You let people you hated know that you disliked them. You were so honest... Everyone liked you for that. You were always known as the 'better Uchiyama brother' between the two of us," he laughed sadly. "I was so jealous of you because I was never able to be so honest. I hated so many people back in middle school and high school, but I forced myself to be as kind as possible to them. I kept telling myself to stop caring about what people thought of me, but I still couldn't let go. I didn't want people to hate me, especially since I was already the least liked between us. So, I thought that if I were nice and respectful to everyone, people would think of us as equal. I was just waiting for the day that everyone would stop saying 'Ventus is better than Roxas'. But that day never came."

He looked at his brother, who had a look of surprise on his face.

_"You know the Uchiyama twins?" a boy asked his female friend quite loudly._

_"Roxas and Ventus, right?" she asked, sipping her juice box. __"I do, man, they're identical!"_

_"They are, but their personalities definitely clash."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"Ventus is so honest and straight-forward, while the other one is apparently really hypocritical."_

_"Ah, seriously? Well, whatever. I've always thought that Roxas was a cool guy, but I've always liked Ventus more anyway."_

_"Yeah, same."_

_Roxas eaves-dropped on the previous conversation from afar, frowning upon hearing those words._

_"Hey, look it's Ventus!" the girl from earlier exclaimed, running up to the wrong twin._

_The boy grinned, "Hey, what's up?" He slapped his back playfully._

_Roxas faked a smile, not wanting them to feel embarrassed that they called out to the younger Uchiyama instead of the older, and replied, "I was just about to go get some lunch."_

"Yet I kept trying. But in the end, people just gave me shit for it. I was called a flirt, a man-whore, a suck-up. So many times, I wanted to punch people in the face. But I didn't. I'd fake a smile, laugh it off as if I didn't care and walk off, bottling up the rage inside of me. Because I was so addicted to the thought of being treated as an equal to you, I didn't realize that I was letting everyone take advantage of me. I ended up doing things even though I didn't want to, thinking I'd earn their acceptance. But I just ended up hurting myself in the end," he looked up at Namine's sister and saw familiarity in her eyes; as if she were living in the same situation as him.

"My hatred had to take over eventually. I couldn't take it anymore and ended up exploding on everyone. I lost friends in the process and well... it turned me into this. An insecure jerk living in the shadow of his older twin brother."

"I never knew you were like this, Roxas," Ventus whispered.

"I never wanted you to find out."

"Roxas," Kairi said. She was starting to get nervous. It was getting harder to think about what to say. "I'm kinda going through the same thing as you."

He scoffed, "You are?"

"If you're gonna give me attitude, I want you gone right now."

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's just... I don't know... You can't be living through the same thing as me."

"Not about the hatred thing, but about the brother complex." (Side note: Brother complex as in feeling inferior to your older brother. Not the other definition.)

"Really?" The six boys looked at her. This was funny, they all thought, their _therapist _was now going to tell them _her _(or, in their point of view, _his_) problem.

She nodded, "All my life, I've been jealous of my big brother," she frowned, thinking of Namine. "Just like Ven, everyone liked him more than me. Even my parents. He was the favored child. Though they never admitted it, it was so obvious. He got better grades than me. He got accepted into the most prestigious college in Twilight Town. He aced his driving test on his first try, unlike me who had to re-do it three times. He graduated in Psychology and found work the moment he stepped out the door. He could cook; actually, he could do pretty much every house chore. He was often described as the 'Perfect Husband' and the 'Perfect Son'. And me? 'Second best' or the 'Not-as-successful-Okumitsu-son'."

_"Straight-A's!" Kairi and Namine's mother exclaimed as she clutched her older daughter's report card._

_"And admitted into Sunset Terrace College!" their father exclaimed, holding Namine's acceptance letter in his hand._

_His wife rushed to her daughter's side and hugged her, "We are so proud of you!" After congratulating Namine, she took the other report card lying on the table: Kairi's. She scanned it, her smiled fading slightly, "Average. A few A's, but mostly B's, and one C."_

_"One C? Which subject?" Kairi and Namine's father asked._

_"Math."_

_The man turned to the redhead, an eyebrow raised, "I thought you wanted to get into Computer Engineering?"_

_Kairi frowned, "I do."_

_"Then why are you getting so low in the subject you'll be using the most?"_

_"I'm working on it... Math's just really hard this year."_

_His wife handed him the paper, in which he examined himself, "Average, indeed. Do better next time. Try to get grades as good as your sister's."_

"My grades were average. I still failed exams even after studying for hours and trying my best, while my brother would get a hundred just by taking a glance at his notes. I tried so hard to get into the same college as him to make my parents proud and have them congratulate me for once, but since I'm Kaito and not him, I was rejected. I got accepted into my second choice school though, but I didn't even get a 'Good job!' from them. I graduated in Computer Engineering and ranked eight out of fifty students. My parents congratulated me, but I knew they were thinking 'Your brother would've been rank one'. Unlike my brother, it took me a while to find a job. I went from company to company; Ubisoft to Microsoft to Apple, before landing in my current job as a programmer at Square Enix. My parents think I'm childish, making games like _Kingdom Hearts _and _Final Fantasy_, but I love my work. Most especially the people there. Why? Because they've never met my big brother. I'm the only Okumitsu to them. And that means... in their eyes... they think of me as number one." She blinked a couple of times to try to stop the tears from falling.

The whole group looked at her sadly. She was surprised no one fell asleep while she was rambling.

She continued, "So, you see, Roxas, you're not the only one going through that. Being jealous of your sibling is normal, especially if they beat you in almost everything- or just the things that mean a lot to you. And about your hatred, it's really bad to keep your feelings to yourself. I know it's hard to open up to someone when you've never done it before, but it's the only way. I suggest finding someone you can trust and just screaming it all out to them."

"I knew it."

"What?"

"I _knew_ you were going to say that 'I suggest you find someone' thing. That's why I turned to Namine. I've been telling her about my problems ever since I entered her Service Centre, no actually since sophomore year in Twilight High, and she was the only person who understood me, the only person who didn't mind my constant yelling and attitude. You see, Kaito, it isn't 'How do I get this anger out of me?', but instead 'I just need to get all this anger out for me to become my old self again'... and she was the only one who figured it out. I didn't want your how-about-you-do-this shit, I wanted a tell-me-all-about-it. She understood me on the first day, and eventually..."

"You fell in love with her, didn't you?"

_"Good afternoon, Roxas, are you feeling better?" Namine greeted, tossing him a melon bread and sitting next to him. It was like this every Friday; they would meet up after school at Sunset Hill, Namine would come with a new pastry and Roxas would rant non stop about his problems._

_The blond felt butterflies in his stomach the moment he heard her melodious voice. He caught the bread and took a bite out of it, "Mm, tastes great. Thanks."_

_She smiled, "So, what happened this past week?"_

_"A bunch of stuff. You know, I heard people talking about me again. Ventus still stands at the top."_

_"You know, people are always talking about you two. You guys are pretty popular around here, aren't you?" she giggled, making Roxas' face turn red. "Anyways, go ahead. What else happened? Any girls?" she teased._

_"Actually, there is one..."_

_"Oh, really? Who?"_

_"...I'm not telling."_

_"Why not?"_

_"You know her."_

_It's you._

Roxas laughed awkwardly, avoiding Kairi's eyes at all costs. This _was _Namine's cousin after all... this was so embarrassing. "Yeah, I did. But a therapist and patient relationship is never gonna work. So, I'm trying to get over her."

"You don't have to force yourself to stop-"

"No, really. When I think about it, I think it's just infatuation. It's just because she was the only person who figured me out."

"I see..." the redhead sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm really no good with things like this."

"You're doing great, don't worry."

She gave him a small smile, "Who's next?"

"Me," Ventus raised his hand. "Let's see if you'll still think of me as a huge-ass jerk."

"Go on."

The blond obeyed, "In short, I break couples up and play with girls' hearts. I don't do it for fun, I swear. It's just payback," he clenched his fists. "Freshman year, Radiant High. I was never interested in getting a girlfriend. My life revolved around three things: friends, family and basketball. That was, until I met Aqua Umiko. She was a sophomore. She was gorgeous, sweet and captain of the swim team. We were placed in the same team for volleyball during Sports week at school. We both really sucked, and while everyone just yelled at us, we'd just look at each other and laugh. We became really good friends, and about a year later, she became my girlfriend. My best friend at the time, Terra, often mentioned how lucky I was to get Aqua. Every basketball practice, he'd say, 'Hey, introduce me to her! I'm your best friend, I have to meet your girlfriend! It's the bro code.' So, I did. They became pretty close, but I never thought much of it. After all, she was mine.

"But nope, guess I was wrong. They started hanging out without me, and Aqua often cancelled our dates last minute. She'd act a bit distant from me, as well as Terra. But like an idiot, I shook it off as nothing. But, oh surprise surprise, she was cheating on me with him. I caught them making out in the gym's storage room when going to get a basketball. I was so pissed, I swear, steam was coming out of my ears," tears fell freely from his eyes. "I punched Terra across the face, and we ended up beating each other up in there. He was taller, stronger and a lot more experienced with fighting, so he beat me up pretty bad. I ended up with a broken nose and a fractured ankle. I remember yelling awful things at both of them. And well... Roxas and I switched schools after that. I never wanted to see them again. I hated them."

_"So, I heard you're leaving," Terra said, his eye still a bit black from the fight he had with his ex-best friend._

_"Yeah," Ventus said, his expression a mix of sadness, anger and heartbreak. "I don't want to have to see you two together every day."_

_"Oh, really?" the brunet rolled his eyes. What happened to the Terra he knew?_

_The blond nodded, "Seeing you is just going to hurt me, but seeing Aqua is definitely going to kill me."_

"In my new school, I was a whole new person. I went out with a bunch of girls just to break their hearts on purpose, so that I could see them cry. I broke happy couples up by tricking the girls to make them seem like they were cheating on their boyfriend. I wanted them to suffer. I wanted everyone to suffer. No one deserved a happy relationship because I never got one."

"...Well," Kairi straightened her papers. "I still think you're a huge-ass jerk," Ventus scowled.

"Wow... that Aqua chick was real shit," Axel said.

Ven glared at him, "Don't talk about her that way! She cheated on me for a reason... and it was obviously because I wasn't good enough!"

"Damn, we're all basically just a bunch of sad, little insecure children with no self-esteem whatsoever."

"Terra, he was just... To put it this way, if you were in any girl's place and were to pick any guy in the whole school, your first choice would be Terra."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, Aqua and I were known as 'that awkward couple' at school because she was taller than me. So, when we'd kiss, _I _was the one who had to go on their tippy-toes. It was embarrassing. I wasn't really _built _back then, I was the basketball underdog because of my height compared to all the other people on the team. Terra though... he was tall, standing at around six feet and two inches. He was muscular, and the ace of the school's basketball team. Just compare us both, and I lose by a landslide. Just think about it, if any of you were a girl, who would you pick?"

"Ventus," Kairi sighed. "Do people really have to suffer because of what happened to you?"

"That's what I wanted-"

"Okay, no. Shut the fudge up for a second. I'm really pissed off at you right now. I'm gonna sound freaking mean, but I don't care right now."

"If you'd just let me fini-"

"You wanna know why Aqua dumped you?"

"Woah, that's a little mean, Kaito," Hayner said, trying to calm the fuming redhead down.

"I don't care. So, you wanna know why, Ventus Uchiyama? Because you are a _douchebag. _A _dick._ She probably sensed that, and wanted you to feel pain as revenge for your douchebagery, so she hooked up with Terra. And oh, to answer your question, if I were a girl, I'd definitely pick Terra; at least he sounds like a kind, decent guy, unlike yo-"

"I'M DOING IT TO HELP THEM."

"...What?"

"You didn't let me finish! I was gonna say, 'That's what I wanted _before_'," he clarified. "I'm doing this to _help _girls and _help _couples!"

Kairi rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah definitely."

"You don't understand," he sighed. "If I mistreat them, they'll learn and watch out for guys like that in the future, so they wouldn't get their hearts broken. The couples I break up are the ones I know aren't gonna work out, the ones where I know one of them is cheating on the other, and the ones I know are gonna end up badly if I don't cut it short immediately."

Silence, once again. They were all shocked, especially Kairi.

"Oh my... Ventus, I am so sorry... I had no idea," she apologized sadly.

"Told you to let me finish."

"You know..." she smiled. "You're actually a really kind person."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I like you. You're an okay dude."

Roxas frowned, "Number one again, huh brother?"

"Don't get me wrong, I like you too, Roxas," she said. "In fact, you guys are equal. I liked Roxas a lot more at first, but now you're equal."

The twins looked at each other and smiled.

"Who would like to go next?" the cross-dresser asked, looking at the remaining three: Axel, Hayner and Sora. Hayner decided it was his turn.

"Hopefully you'll like me after my story, too," the blond laughed sadly. "So, my problem in a nutshell? I have an inferiority complex, but I act like I'm superior to everyone. My story should be pretty obvious. But I'll explain it in detail, of course. Let's see... well, I've been in all kinds of groups back in high school. I went from group to group, hoping to find one that would accept me. The reason why I kept changing was because no matter what group I was in, they were all better than me. I wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, so when we'd compare our grades, I always lied to pretend I had a better grade. I was always the forgotten one in the group, always the one left out. Some of them were smart, some were good-looking, some were creative, and then there was me. Nothing special. I thought I was good in Struggle Tournaments, but there was always that one person who beat me. I was just waiting for someone to be my equal. And because I was 'bad' in everything, they always made fun of me or talked about me behind my back. I was so sick of it, I started working so hard to change myself to beat all of them. My hard work eventually paid off, and I started insulting them like how they always insulted me. However, that cockiness sort of became a part of me, and that _feeling _of being superior kinda took over me, since I never knew how it felt like before."

Kairi nodded her head, taking notes in her booklet.

"And then, one day... I met Pence and Olette. Apparently, they've been observing me. They figured out my problem. And even so, they were the only ones who treated me as an equal. The three of us were equal. They were good in things I was bad at, and _I_ was good in things _they_ were bad at; it wasn't like the other groups I was in, where there was always someone who was better than me in the things I was good in."

_"You're Hayner, right?" a girl with wavy brown hair asked sweetly._

_"Uh... yeah," he awkwardly answered. "And you are...?"_

_"Olette," she smiled, then gestured at her male friend, who was standing right next to her. "And this is Pence."_

_"Nice to meet you two?" the blond said, sounding unsure._

_"Pleasure's all mine," the brunet said, not taking notice of Hayner's tone. "So, inferiority complex, huh?"_

_Hayner's eyes widened, "How did you...?"_

_"It's pretty obvious you're trying to hide it," Olette giggled._

_"Ah," was all he could say._

_"Hey, I know this is a bit weird since we just met and all, but come eat lunch with me and Olette sometime. We hate seeing you look so left out and out of place at your table," Pence said in a friendly tone. "How about it?"_

"Hm... not much of a problem, to be honest," the auburn-haired girl said. "All I have to say is _be yourself. _Hayner, who cares if you're not better than everyone else?"

"I do."

"Why?"

"I have no confidence in myself. Changing myself will make people like me. And people liking me means I won't be brought down any longer."

"No, don't change," she said sternly. "Ever heard of the expression _You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, but there will always be someone out there who doesn't like peaches_?"_  
_

The boy shook his head. Kairi continued, "You can change yourself as much as you want, but there will always be someone out there who will dislike you. There will always be someone out there to bring you down. Changing won't make a difference and it's so fake, to be honest. You're not being yourself. Besides, there will always be a group of people who will like you for who you are."

"Oh, really. Like who?"

And so the redhead decided to say the cheesiest, most overused answer in any movie, "Like us."

The blond smiled, "Hah, gay."

"Oh shut up," she grinned.

Axel chuckled, "Man... I feel so out of place. I mean, my problem is so stupid compared to all of yours."

"Oh, shit. That's true. You should've went first," Kairi said.

"I was going to, but you cut me."

"Psh, no I didn't," she joked. "Okay, okay. Go ahead."

The redhead stood up, proudly pointing two fingers at his face, "My name is Axel and I am a pyromaniac."

"Hello Axel," the whole group said in a bored tone. They've already had enough of his shit.

He sat back down, "And it's all my grandfather's fault."

"Okay, no. Your problem is obviously _not being able to blame things on yourself. _Geez," Roxas rolled his eyes.

"LET ME FINISH," he screeched. "Anyway. My grandfather was a pyromaniac as well. More than me, actually. He couldn't go a day without burning something-"

"Uh, you can't go a day without burning something eith-"

"AND ONE DAY... we passed by his house to visit, only to find it in ruins. He accidentally burned his house down, and himself. His burns were severe, fatal. He was dying. And the last thing he gave me was his favorite, red lighter. He smiled sadly as he handed it to me, and the last thing he told me..."

_"Grandpa!" a little red-haired boy exclaimed worriedly, rushing to his grandfather's side. "What happened?!"_

_The old man smiled, weakly lifted a closed hand, then opened it to reveal a red lighter. He smiled sadly, knowing that his time was almost up, "__My dreams... my honor... they're yours now. You'll be... my living legacy__."_

"Yeah so basically, my grandfather influenced me, re-enacted the Final Fantasy: Crisis Core ending, telling me to continue on burning things for him, then died in front of my seven-year-old self."

"..."

"..."

"What the hell," Kairi said. "I don't even know what to say about this. Like... stop burning things? Stop being his living legacy?"

"But I have to fulfill his wish."

"You know what, I'll let Namine deal with your problem cause I literally have no idea what to say or do about that. Like, should I throw your lighter away? I have no idea."

"Do you guys just all hate me or what."

Switching subjects, Kairi said, "So, last but not least... Sora," the substitute therapist said dreadfully, knowing the whole story already.

Axel nudged Hayner, who was sitting next to him, "Ooh, this is gonna be good."

The brunet who hardly talked this whole session scanned each person's face in the room. Everyone, except for Axel who looked somewhat excited, looked like they were about to cry. He felt like he was going to cry as well, knowing he had to tell them all about his past and... her...

Sora took a deep breath, "Her name is Kairi Erusa Sakashita."

"And she's...?" Kairi felt a lump in her throat.

"My ex-girlfriend," he frowned. "And ex-best friend. Well, she still counts as my best friend, but I most definitely don't count as hers anymore. She hates my guts. We haven't talked in about eight years, and I've got no one else to blame but myself. I was the one who broke our relationship, and I was the one who destroyed our friendship."

"You must've done something terrible to get her to hate you that much."

He scowled, "Well, it's partially this other girl's fault. Oh man, what was her name again? Shi... something. I forgot. It's mostly my fault though, since I was such a push-over," he scratched the back of his head. "Anyways, I'll start from the beginning. When I was about five years old, a new girl moved right next door. My family was the super-happy-go-lucky kinda family, so of course we came over to say hi. I rang the doorbell, and her mother was the one who opened it up."

_The brunet's eyes widened._

_A cute, red-haired girl stood at the doorway, the latter looking down to avoid the little boy's eyes at all costs._

_She's so cute, he thought. And her hair is so cool!_

_"Hello, there! Welcome to Destiny Islands!" the brown-haired boy's parents exclaimed a little too excitedly._

_The little girls' mother smiled warmly, thanking them and introducing herself. The adults started a conversation that the brunet didn't paid much mind to. He was so concentrated on his new neighbour's hair. The girl shyly looked up and made the same facial expression as him._

_At the same time, the two pointed at each other and screeched, "YOUR HAIR!"_

_The adults stopped talking and looked down at them. All three of them burst out laughing._

_"And that's the first thing you say when you meet someone new?" the redhead's mother laughed. "Introduce yourself. Come on, dear, don't be shy."_

_"I'm Kairi," the little girl grinned._

_"Sora!" the boy exclaimed. "It's nice to meet you, Kairi! Let's be friends!"_

_A blonde girl, who no one noticed until now, sitting on the bottom of the stairs looked up from her sketchbook, smiling. "Oh, so you're not gonna introduce me to your new boyfriend, Kairi?"_

_"Namine!"_

"We became friends immediately. And we soon became best friends. We did everything together; we re-enacted Disney movies together, we played together at the play island almost every day, we cheered each other up when either of us were feeling down, we went to each other's houses every day; we were inseparable. Everything was perfect, until _she _came along," he clenched his fists. "We were about eight when she came. She... ruined everything."

In her notebook, Kairi drew a picture of a familiar brunet getting eaten by a pack of wolves. "Go on." _Blaming things on other people... the nerve of him!_

"Kairi and I hardly talked to each other after _she_ moved to Destiny Islands. She was the adopted daughter of the mayor. Like I said earlier, my family was super-happy-go-lucky, so of course, we went over to say hi. I introduced myself, and for some reason, she grew really interested in me. After that, she started following me everywhere and inviting me over to play, hardly leaving me any time to play with Kairi or making me cancel plans with her last minute."

_"Sora!" the mayor's daughter exclaimed happily, running up to the brunet. "Come over and play with me!"_

_"Sorry, blank. I promised my bestest friend Kairi that I'd play with her today," Sora apologized politely._

_The little girl started tearing up, "You're always with Kairi! It's not fair!" She began bawling._

_"U-uh...! No, don't cry! I played with you yesterday, and the day before that, a-and the day before that already, I-I just... Kairi is..." Sora stuttered. He wasn't used to dealing with crying girls. He sighed, "Alright... How about I cancel my playdate with her? She could wait until tomorrow..."_

_The mysterious girl immediately stopped crying upon hearing what he said and hugged the boy. "Yay!"_

_From afar, a little red-haired girl watched the two with a hurt expression on her face. She turned on her heel and started walking home._

_"Yeah, tomorrow..."_

With a hint of anger in her voice, the red-haired girl spoke up, "Why didn't you just say no to her then?"

"What?"

"Why couldn't you have said, 'Sorry, I'm hanging out with Kairi today'?!"

"Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not angry! I'm just a bit upset with this! I can't believe you ditched my cousin several times for that other girl!"

"Look, I couldn't say no cause when I did, she'd cry!"

"Who cares?!"

"I do!" he yelled. "I hate seeing girls cry, especially when it's my fault! Just... I don't know. She always tricked me into playing with her and she somehow always found a way to get Kairi out of the picture. Kairi and I often had arguments when it came to that subject, and my stupid eight-year-old self finally realized that I was hurting her without even realizing it. So, I apologized and actually grew some balls; yup, I learned how to say no." He continued, "Let's fast forward a bit. Sophomore year, and at the ripe age of sixteen. I realized I fell in love with Kairi and confessed to her. My confession was just plain embarrassing though; an epic fail."

_And there they were, in Sora's living room, dancing and singing to an all-too-familiar Disney song._

_"Love is an open door!"_

_"With you!"_

_"With you!"_

_"With you!"_

_"With you!"_

_"Love is an open... doooor~!"_

_"Can I say something crazy?" Sora held Kairi's right hand with both of his and knelt down on one knee. With his usual Sora-smile and his heartbeat increasing dramatically, he changed the lyrics, "Will you be my girlfriend?"_

_Kairi, however, was too into the moment and thought he said Hans' line, reciting Anna's, "Can I say something even crazier?"_

_Sora's eyes twinkled, believing that she noticed his change of lyrics._

_"Yes!"_

_Upon hearing her answer, Sora immediately shot right up, pushed her against the wall and planted a kiss on her lips. Kairi's eyes widened, but soon drooped, and both of them got lost in the kiss._

_It was an awkward, funny confession, but she would have said yes anyway._

"I was so happy," he sighed. "And, well... what happened after that... I don't really wanna talk about it."

"What happened?" Kairi asked, a sprinkle of anger in her voice, knowing exactly what happened after.

The brunet frowned, "We broke up."

"Yeah, obviously. Otherwise you wouldn't be here," she rolled her eyes. "What caused the breakup?"

"I broke it off."

"That didn't answer my question."

"I left Kairi... for another girl."

"And who is that girl?"

"_Her_."

"Who is this _her_?"

"...The mayor's adopted daughter."

The whole room, excluding Sora and Kairi, gasped over-dramatically, and Axel even faked a faint, thinking it fit the atmosphere.

Kairi clenched her fists, "That's horrible."

"It is," the brown-haired boy frowned. "And well... Long story short, Kairi left the island, told me she hated me and never wanted to see me again, then slapped me across the face. It's been eight years since then, and I still can't get over her."

The redhead shut her notebook loudly, then stood up, "Thank you all for participating. I'll do my best to try to help solve all your problems before time's up."

"Uh, Kaito, aren't you gonna give Sora some advice on his problem?" Axel asked.

"Oh yeah," she turned to her ex. "Get over her. She probably wants nothing to do with you after you pulled something like that." She smiled innocently as a dark aura flowed out from her.

With that, she scurried up the stairs, leaving all six boys downstairs terrified, only to find Vanitas sitting near the stair's rails on the second floor.

"Oh, so _this _is what you were doing," she said.

The black-haired boy looked up at her, "Yup. I got bored and had nothing else to do, so I figured I'd listen in on your _Magic Circle_ shit."

She sat next to him, knowing all too well that it was some lame excuse, "You wanted to learn more about each one of us, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, okay," she smiled. "Well, since you know all about _my _problem, how about you tell me yours?"

He stood up and reached for the door handle, twisting it, "Fine. But I don't want _anyone else_ in this household to know about my past, got it?"

"Got it."

* * *

Namine checked the calendar on her phone. She noticed an event was marked for the next day.

_Vanitas' Birthday_

"Oh!" she exclaimed. She quickly pressed the home button, touched the _Messaging _app, wrote down her message, then sent it to her sister.

_Kairi, it's Vanitas' birthday tomorrow, don't forget to greet him!_

* * *

**A/N: **One word: finals.

That explains this late update, sorry! D: Dayum. New readers? HELLO. NICE TO MEET YOU. Oh, and thanks to all those who reviewed last chapter! :D

So we got to learn about everyone's (except for Vanitas') past/problems. I found Kairi and Roxas' the saddest to write, since they're problems a few people can relate to. Riku's was indeed depressing, but I find I a bit over-exaggerated and unrealistic maybe?

By the way, I know Frozen just came out about seven months ago, and it's mentioned in Sora and Kairi's past (eight years ago), so let's just pretend Frozen is part of the Disney Renaissance era (1989-1999) LOL. Had no other ideas for Sora's confession AHAHAH sobs. ;A;

Please review, and until next time! :)


	7. Happy Birthday to You

**L**ucky **N**umber **S**even

Chapter 07

**Happy Birthday to You**

_Kupo!_

"Huh?" Kairi heard the familiar sound and a vibration in her pocket. She took out her phone. "Oh, a text message."

_Kairi, it's Vanitas' birthday tomorrow, don't forget to greet him!_

The redhead looked up at the black-haired boy who was currently laying on his bed, arms behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, his face void of any emotion.

"So, you wanna hear my story or not?" he asked, turning so his back would be facing her.

"Well, yeah. That's why I entered your room," she replied as she took a seat on the floor, putting her phone away, and taking a mental note of tomorrow's event.

"Don't tell _anyone_ about my past, got it?"

"All right, all right, I heard you the first time, geez..."

Vanitas pulled the covers over himself in order to avoid eye contact, a few strands of his black hair escaping from the covers, "Would you believe me if I told you that... I used to smile all the time?"

The red-haired girl was taken aback, "No way."

He nodded, "That Sora guy..." Just hearing that name made Kairi grimace, mostly because she was reminded of their whole past just moments ago. "Believe it or not, I used to be just like him. Happy-go-lucky, cheerful, optimistic. Man, those days are long gone now..."

"What happened?"

He froze.

"Vanitas?" No one could miss the worry on her face.

"They died in a fire."

The black-haired boy covered his ears, recalling the terrified screams of his parents the night the flames took away their lives. He closed his eyes tightly to try to think of good thoughts, hoping to erase the image of them being burned alive, but to no avail; all he saw were his mother and his father being eaten by the element.

Kairi frowned upon hearing about the main cause for his problem, and from hearing the tone in his voice. It was shaky, fearful, and most of all, filled with sorrow. To have the courage to open up to someone he hardly knew about a traumatizing event in his life was, in her eyes, amazing. She admired him silently as she listened intently to what he had to say next.

"I was about eleven when it happened, nine when it all started," he said. The beginning of his phrase was monotone as usual, but near the end, his voice was shaking. In fact, his whole body was shaking.

The redhead's eyes widened. He'd been traumatized for over ten years.

"You see," he began, shifting positions so his back would be facing her. Tears easily fell from his golden eyes after the sudden switch. He didn't even realize his eyes got all watery. "I grew up in a rich family. My father was the owner of this huge company, and my mother was the fashion designer for this really expensive clothes brand. The Badlands was a rather poor place; _ghetto_ for lack of better words. If you were rich- actually, if you had more than five dollars on you- people would do a_nything _to take your munny from you."

"You were rich... so..." Kairi began and watched as Vanitas nodded his head from underneath the covers.

"Yup, so people often tried to steal from us- and sometimes even destroy us."

_"Dad!" a nine-year-old boy with jet black hair ran over to his father, a look of worry on his face. The man, with the help of his wife, limped over to the couch in front of the fireplace. He sat down, a painful groan escaping his lips. The woman ran out of the living room, only to return moments later with a wet cloth and bandages, and dabbed at his bleeding head. She asked her son to help wrap the bandages around his father's ankle, in which he agreed._

_"What happened?" Vanitas asked as he began to cover up the swollen ankle before him. His father grunted from his touch._

_"Who was it this time, dear?" his mother asked as she continued to wipe the blood from his face._

_"JENOVA," he coughed. JENOVA was the name of the Badlands' most feared- and most wanted- gang, consisting of three men: Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo. They desperately searched for munny in hopes of paying off their dying mother's surgery. But instead of earning that munny fair and square like most people, they'd steal. And who else to steal from other than the head of the world's most successful industry?_

_"What did they take?" she asked, putting the cloth away._

_"They fell for the dummy wallet," he chuckled in hopes of lightening the mood, which- by the way- didn't._

_The woman's face read that of one of disapproval, "They're going to be angry, and you'll get even more hurt."_

_"Don't worry, I swear, I'll do whatever it takes to keep us safe."_

"I went to a public school. No, I didn't get bullied or beaten up or anything. The kids there weren't as bad as the adults. The adults were just all filled with jealousy, hatred, whereas the kids were all innocent, refusing to become monsters just like their parents," he explained.

"Did you guys ever think of maybe leaving the Badlands?" Kairi asked. Why would his family want to keep living in a place like that?

"My mom and I always tried to talk him into moving to a kinder place, like Radiant Garden, but he said no every time. My dad didn't wanna leave the company behind."

"Oh..." She frowned.

"You know, when I think about it, seeing my mom cry must be the worst memory from my childhood. My dad often came home bruised up and it just killed her," he said, surprisingly not in a monotone. Kairi could actually _hear _the pain. "So, to cheer her up, I took up piano lessons because I knew how much she loved music."

_"One more time, Vanitas," the woman asked, stretched out on the living room's red velvet couch. Her cheeks were stained with tears, and although her eyes showed sadness, that didn't stop her from smiling. "Please?"_

_"Sure thing, mom," little Vanitas grinned. After months and months of lessons and practice, he was finally able to play his mother's favorite song: Somnus._

_"Thank you, sweetheart..." she whispered, closing her eyes._

_She hummed along to the piece, and soon drifted off into a peaceful sleep._

Kairi took notes in her notebook before looking back up at him. Vanitas still had his back facing her.

"We'll skip the small details," he said, sitting up. The aforementioned action caused Kairi to jump in surprise. He then turned to her, golden eyes filled with tears. She could tell he was fighting them back.

"It happened one night," he began. "I was walking home from my piano lessons. It was pretty late out, maybe around eleven in the evening, because I was practicing extra hard and extra long for my recital the following day. While I was walking, a firetruck wailed and zoomed right past me. I silently prayed for it not to turn left, since my house was the only one in that corner," he paused. "But it did."

Kairi knew he was going to say that.

"I ran as fast as I could to my house... only to find it burning down. There were dozens of police cars and firetrucks, and a whole crowd of people. I heard my mom scream, and like an idiot, I ran inside, ignoring the people who tried to stop me. I broke down the door and ran right inside, shielding myself from the fire and the smoke. I followed the screams of my parents... and when I entered the living room... they... they..." his eyes widened.

The scene flashed before his eyes.

"Vanitas? " Kairi asked. The boy remained frozen. "You don't need to keep going-"

"They were burning... their skin... their eyes... I..." he curled up into a ball and began to breathe heavily. Kairi watched him in silence.

A few minutes later, the charcoal-haired boy was able to calm himself.

"Sorry," he apologized. His therapist gave him a sympathetic look. "When... when I saw them, I just stood frozen in place. I couldn't move. Luckily, a fireman saved me before anything happened. He picked me up and ran out the door. I got burned a bit though," he lifted up his long-sleeve to reveal a scar on his right arm. It was pretty small, and was awkward in shape, kind of like a lightning bolt. "After that... my aunt and uncle took me in. They weren't the best guardians ever, and they seemed really annoyed with me and didn't wanna deal with my depression. So I left the day I turned eighteen."

"Do you still play the piano?" Kairi asked.

"I haven't played since the fire," was his answer. "I think I still remember how to play _Somnus_, but that's about it."

"What about that whole 'if my parents suffered, everyone else has to suffer' thing?"

He stiffened, "That's a little darker side of me in my past."

"Oh, come on. It's not like you killed anyone."

He looked at her with an uncomfortable expression on his face, his lips forming a thin, straight line.

"Vanitas."

"..."

"You're kidding."

"..."

She backed away slowly, "You..."

"No, I'm kidding," he ran his fingers through his untamed hair, messing them up even more. Kairi sighed in relief. "I almost did, though."

_He didn't know what came over him._

_But he knew one thing: JENOVA would stop committing crimes._

"_What's wrong, Kadaj?" thirteen-year-old Vanitas cackled. He held a wooden baseball bat in his hand; the strongest thing he could get at only thirteen years old. "Can't handle a little kid?"_

_Kadaj and his brothers were lying on the cold ground, all bruised and beaten up. Loz and Yazoo were unconscious, the former's left leg twisted in an awkward position, and the latter's head bleeding profusely._

"_You'll... pay..." the only conscious silver-haired villain glared, clutching his side. "Once I tell the authorities..."_

_The raven-haired boy cackled once again, but much louder this time, "Oh, yeah, you go ahead and do that. Go tell the police a thirteen-year-old kid beat you all up."_

He scratched the back of his head, "I was a bit psychotic at thirteen. But hey, it wasn't my fault. JENOVA deserved it. I overheard them talking once, and found out that they sent someone to burn my house down. They're honestly the biggest dumbasses to ever walk this Earth. Burning my house down meant that everything inside of it gets burned, too. So, in the end, they didn't get any of my parents' riches," he scoffed. "When I found out, I was just- just filled with so much _rage_. They had to suffer. I didn't care how, and I didn't even think about the consequences. I just wanted to see their pained, twisted faces."

"At least you didn't try to set them on fire."

"..." he snapped his fingers. "Damn. I should've."

Kairi smirked, knowing he was just kidding... hopefully.

"So this is why you hate Axel so much..."

He twitched, "Don't say his name around me. I might actually consider killing him with his own element."

She laughed, "All right. Well, I don't know if I have any advice for you, to be honest."

"Don't worry, I wasn't expecting you to have any," he said smugly. Kairi made a face, offended. "I'll be good on my own. You probably had no experience with psychology before getting here. I could probably do a better job than you."

She glared, "You cocky cock."

He chuckled, "I'm just kidding. Man, I love seeing people get so fired up over the smallest things. Advice would be great."

Before she said a word, she turned her head around to face the door to make sure that Axel wouldn't randomly burst through it and sing with all his off-tune glory, "THE PAST IS IN THE PAST!"

After a few seconds, she turned back to her patient, "Well... I don't expect you to forget all about your parents' death. I know they mean a lot to you, and besides, it would be really hard to forget about something so important. But I know one thing for sure: you can't change the past, but you can definitely change the future," she said. Her palms were beginning to sweat; she had absolutely no experience with psychology or giving advice whatsoever, that all she could give to her patients were overused, cheesy lines she heard in movies. "You can continue being depressed and seeking for the suffering of others, or you can start over. You can live life the way your parents have always wanted you to."

"_Vanitas?" a beautiful woman with blonde hair called out to her only son, who was currently playing the piano. He was playing another one of her favorites: Kiss Me Goodbye by Angela Aki, from the famous game Final Fantasy XII; one of the boy's favorite games._

"_Yeah, mom?" he looked up at her as he continued to play the piece._

_She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I want you to promise me and your father something."_

"_Sure thing, what is it?"_

"_I want you to promise us, that no matter what happens in your life, you will prevail over darkness, and always find the light within you."_

_He laughed, "Geez mom, I think you should stop watching me play my video games. You sound just like-"_

"_Vanitas, I'm serious."_

_He played the last notes of the song, and then looked up at her. She wore a serious expression on her face. He smiled childishly and said, "I promise."_

Vanitas' eyes widened as the memory played in his head.

His parents weren't alive anymore, but if they were... they would be very disappointed.

The black-haired boy locked eyes with Kairi, "Kaito... do you mind leaving me alone for just a little while?"

She stood up, smiling, "Sure thing."

Kairi stepped out the door, only to find the six other boys sitting in front of Vanitas' room. She stopped herself from screeching and slowly shut the door behind her. She pushed them all into the room next door, slamming the door shut the moment they all entered.

The redhead glared at all of them, "What's your problem?! All of you!"

Axel raised his hands up in defense, "Not my idea."

The twins smacked the back of his head at the same time, "STOP BLAMING OTHERS, HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TELL YOU?!"

Kairi massaged her temples, "Axel..."

"All right, fine, maybe it _was_ my idea. But come on, I wanted to know why he's always got his head up his ass," he shrugged. "I didn't think it was _this_ serious..."

They all frowned, feeling bad for the boy.

"Don't mention any of this to him, please," Kairi begged. "He told me not to let the others know."

"Yeah, but you didn't tell us anything. We eaves-dropped. It's not like we forced it out of you or something," Hayner said.

"LET'S CHEER HIM UP!" Sora exclaimed loudly, throwing his hands up in the air. It was his turn to get a smack in the back of his head by the Uchiyama brothers.

"You're too loud, he might hear you!" they shushed.

A light bulb appeared on the top of Kairi's head, "It's his birthday tomorrow!"

"SURPRISE PAR-" Sora began, he was interrupted once more with a slap across the face. "-ty."

"Exactly!" Kairi exclaimed, grinning madly. "Let's get him something!"

The six boys all looked at her; Sora, Riku, Roxas, Ventus and Hayner with smiles on their faces, Axel being the only without one and with an eyebrow raised.

The cross-dresser looked at the boy who had no smile visible on his features, "What's wrong?"

"Well... we hardly know him... so..." Axel scratched the back of his head.

"You don't want to."

"Nope."

Kairi sighed, "Why not?"

"He hates my guts. Why would I wanna help someone who hates me?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Axel, if you were in his place..."

The red-haired boy gave some thought to it, "Yeah, okay. Good point."

"What should we get him?" Riku asked, louder than usual. Doing that _Magic Circle _thing earlier seemed to have given him more confidence in himself, especially since he now knew that no one in the house was judging him.

"I suggest a piano!" Sora exclaimed. "A white one because black is darkness and darkness is bad and we don't wanna remind him about his past."

Kairi flipped through her notebook, and landed on the page with the words **CHARACTER PROFILE **on top. She quickly scanned Vanitas' description, frowning slightly.

"I don't know guys..." she said, then read the following excerpt. "He plays the piano, but can't play without the night of the fire rewinding in his head."

"Damn it..." Ventus cursed, sitting on the floor and crossing his arms.

"No, guys, it'll be okay," Hayner smiled. "Kaito, earlier you said he should start over again, right? I have no doubt in my mind that he's working on it right now. Sure, getting him a piano can bring back bad memories, but it can also bring back good ones... and maybe this'll finally get him to move on. Maybe this'll help him realize that-"

"THE PAST IS IN THE PAST!" Axel sang, throwing an imaginary crown away.

"Enough of your Frozen references, you idiot," Kairi shook her head. At least he didn't do that earlier.

"Hey, Hayner's right..." Kairi turned to him. "Good job man, you said something intelligent for once."

"Suck my willis and doodleberries."

Disregarding the blond's previous inappropriate comment, Kairi gestured for all of them to come closer, "Okay, so this is what we're gonna do," they all huddled up and listened to the talking redhead. "One of us has to distract Vanitas the whole day, while the rest of us decorate the house and cook the food. The one staying with him has to give us updates every now and then via text message."

They all nodded their heads, urging her to continue, "All right, so who can cook?"

"Does burning food count as cooking?" Axel asked.

"Axel, you'll be staying with Vanitas all day."

"NO, WHAT THE FRICK."

"Twins!" she called. The blonds perked up. "Can you cook?"

They nodded their heads, "You name it, we cook it."

"Hayner!"

"I-I'll put up the decorations," he smiled sheepishly.

"Riku!"

"I can bake..."

"I can cook, too," she pointed a finger at her face. "And I know Sora can cook-"

"How do you know I can cook?" the brunet asked, surprised.

Kairi's eyes widened. _Oops... _"I- uh, m-my cousin used to talk about your cooking all the time. Yeah, she said you'd always make her awesome food whenever she was feeling down and stuff."

Sora blushed, and his eyes sparkled, "Really? She still mentions me?"

"Don't be stupid. I said _used to_. Meaning, years ago," she rolled her eyes, feeling her stomach turn when she saw his smile drop. "Anyways, good. Perfect. Axel, you're in charge of distracting Vanitas all day tomorrow, and the rest of us, we'll decorate the house and cook the food. Are we clear?"

They all had determined looks on their faces, except Axel, who wore a face that read fear and dread. All at the same time, but in different tones, they all said, "Crystal."

* * *

"Come in, Little Red Riding Hood," Axel said into his smart phone. No answer. "Little Red Riding Hood, do you read me?"

"Axel, it's not like you're spying on him, he's probably right next to you," Little Red Riding Hood, Kairi of course, said as she facepalmed.

"Who's Axel? That's not my name."

"Axel-"

"Ahem."

Kairi rolled her eyes, "Flurry of Dancing Flames."

"Yeah, that's right."

Vanitas, who was indeed right next to him, raised an eyebrow, wondering what the frick could be so interesting about McFlurry's and the classic Little Red Riding Hood fairytale. When Axel hung up, he shoved his phone back into his pocket and gave the birthday boy the creepiest fake smile ever.

"So, Vanilla," Axel said. The moment those words slipped out of his mouth, his eyes went as wide as saucers. He had just revealed Vanitas' codename. "...as. Vanillastas. Vanille-tas. Vanitas. Yeah, sorry dude. Your name sounds like vanilla, like, you know, the flavor... yeah," he laughed nervously. "Speaking of vanilla, how about some ice cream?" The flame-haired boy pointed over at an ice cream stand.

"Uh, sure..." the black-haired boy said, giving Axel a weird look.

The two walked over to the stand, Axel leading in order to hide his nervous expression. When he got to the counter, he dropped enough coins to pay for two. Vanitas dug his hand in his pocket to try to find enough change to pay the redhead back, who shook it off and said, "It's all right." The charcoal-haired boy shrugged and shoved the munny back in his pocket.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"No problem," Axel gave him a thumbs up. "Flavor?"

"Whatever you're taking."

"Hm... I don't know if you'll like it," he scratched the back of his neck. "Sea salt ice cream?"

Vanitas made a face. He had never heard of _salty _ice cream his whole life.

"_Salty_ ice cream?"

"No, sour ice cream," the redhead said sarcastically. "Yeah, salty ice cream. Well... it's salty at first, but then it turns sweet."

"Hm... all right, I'll try it."

Axel smiled, asking the woman on the other side for two bars of the aforementioned blue, frozen treat. She gladly handed them to him, along with his change, in which he dropped into the **TIPS **jar.

Axel handed his companion a bar of salty ice cream.

Vanitas licked the foreign snack, "Woah... this tastes great."

"It does, doesn't it?" the redhead smiled before licking his.

"What's this called again?"

"Sea salt ice cream, got it memorized?"

"Got it."

Smiling, Axel took out his phone and sent a text to a contact labeled, "Girly Guy".

_Vanilla likes sea salt ice cream._

* * *

_Kupo!_

Hearing the familiar sound, Kairi wiped the flour off her hands and swiped to unlock it.

_He likes sea salt ice cream._

"Hayner, front and center!" Kairi screamed at the top of her lungs. The blond ran down the stairs, three by three, and made a military salute the moment he reached her.

"Yes, sir!"

"Sea salt ice cream!"

"Loud and clear!"

And with that, he zoomed out the door to the grocery store to buy what Kairi demanded.

"And stay there until I say you can get back! Axel might give us updates on food and supplies later on!" she screamed out to him as she watched his figure get smaller and smaller. She walked back into the kitchen, where everyone was cooking restaurant-quality dishes and baking heavenly sweets.

"Stop what you're doing, I'm taking samples!" she exclaimed in a Gordon Ramsay kind of way. She walked over to Roxas and Ventus and tasted their meal. She immediately spat it out. "This chicken is so _raw_, that a skilled vet could still save it."

"Well yeah, we just put it in there," they replied in unison. "And you got that line from the Internet."

"The broth's great though, good job."

After them, she walked over to Riku, who was holding out a red velvet cupcake. She took the dessert from him and shoved the whole thing in her mouth. Her eyes widened, "This is amazing."

She looked as though she was going to cry. The platinum-haired boy blushed, scratching the back of his head shyly. When she finished chewing, she told him to continue the good work and patted his back. She then made her way towards Sora, who was cooking-

"Stir-fried vermicelli with pan-seared scallops?" Kairi asked. It was her favorite. "Why the complex meal?"

"It's my best dish," he grinned. "Here, try some!" He handed her a fork.

She took the utensil and twirled it in the noodles, getting as much as possible. It had been _years _since the last time she ate it. When the food entered her mouth, she chewed slowly, savoring it. It was filled with flavor; the noodles firm and perfectly seasoned, and the scallops creamy and delicious.

She threw the fork in the sink before turning to Sora, "Perfect."

"Thanks!"

Kairi looked at all of them proudly, "Keep up the good work!"

* * *

"YO, CHECK IT OUT, I'M A WINNER!" Axel exclaimed, waving his stick in the air, making pelvic thrusts and dancing around his housemate energetically. The stick had the word **WINNER** written on it in bold letters, and a little crown was drawn on top of it.

Vanitas snatched the thing out of his hand and inspected it, "Just cause it says 'WINNER' doesn't mean you are one."

The show-off froze mid-dance and face-faulted, "That hurt."

"What is this supposed to mean anyway?" he pointed at the words on the stick.

"It means you get a free ice cream."

Vanitas looked up at him with sparkling eyes, "Can I...?"

With a heavy heart and tears in his emerald eyes, Axel took a deep breath and said, "T-take it."

"Thanks," the boy with spiky black hair said, leaving the redhead behind to go fetch his new favorite ice cream flavor. "It's almost as good as spaghetti with Napolitano sauce."

Axel approached him upon hearing that, "You like that?" He received a nod. The boy with striking green eyes immediately whipped out his phone and hastily punched down a message to send to Kairi.

_Spaghetti w/ Neopolitanianis (well shit idek) sauce._

"Would you like to try our new flavor?" the woman at the ice cream stand asked. "Red velvet ice cream."

Vanitas rudely stuck a tongue out, "It's all right. I hate anything red velvet."

_Vanilla-chan hates red velvet desu._

* * *

"Hayner, I need you to get meatballs, spaghetti noodles and Napolitano sauce; we've got the rest," Kairi said to the blond on the other line. Not only did Namine pay for the plane ticket, limo and gorgeous penthouse, she even provided her with a kitchen filled with ingredients. "Namine is loaded, dayum."

"The hell is Neopolitanilatino sauce?" Hayner asked. "I only see Napolitano."

Kairi facepalmed, "That's the one."

"But it says Napoli-"

"I SAID THAT'S THE ONE."

"OKAY, CALM YOURSELF."

She hung up on him, unable to bear with his idiocy any longer. She checked her messages from any updates.

"RIKU, I'M SORRY, STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" she exclaimed. The aforementioned boy stopped what he was doing, which was frosting his red velvet cupcakes, and looked up at her.

"...He doesn't like red velvet..."

"..."

"..."

"I see," he frowned, putting the frosting tube down. He walked to the other side of the kitchen to pick out the ingredients to start over again, a depressing aura flowing out of him. "Does he like chocolate?"

_Axel, does he like chocolate?_

* * *

"HEY, VANITAS, YOU KNOW WHAT TASTES AWESOME?" Axel screeched happily, placing both hands on his hips. "CHOCOLATE."

"I agree."

_Yes he does._

* * *

"Yes, he does," Kairi confirmed. "I'm sorry, Riku."

"It's all right."

"Hashtag stay strong," she said. "HIKARI, FRONT AND CENTER!"

Just like Hayner, the brunet ran over to her and made a military salute, "Yes, sir!"

"Piano?"

"Bought!"

"Price?"

"50 000 munny!"

"How much do we each owe you?"

"...About 6300 munny each if I calculated it properly!"

"When will we be getting it?"

"It's to be delivered by six!"

She glanced at the clock, which read four post meridian, "Back to your station, soldier!" He obeyed. "ALL RIGHT EVERYONE, WE'VE GOT TWO HOURS, LET'S GO!"

_Keep him busy until six thirty._

* * *

"Six thirty..." Axel twitched. _What the heck are we gonna do for two hours?_

He turned to Vanitas, smiling, "Wanna sing karaoke?"

"No."

"Wanna go eat at a restaurant?"

"No."

"Wanna play baseball?"

"No."

"Then what the hell do you wanna do?"

"I wanna go home."

The self-claimed 'Flurry of Dancing Flames' made an x with his arms and said, "WE CAN'T."

Vanitas raised a golden eye, "And why not?"

"Because... because..." he wracked his brain for an excuse. He looked around for some inspiration. Nothing. "...Oh, look! There's a sale on beets!" He ran into the grocery store, dragging his companion along.

"What's so good about beets?" the raven-haired boy asked, irritated. He was bored, he wanted to go home, and he wanted a nap. That was how he spent his birthdays every year.

Axel handed him one, "Drop it."

"Excuse me?"

"Drop it."

Vanitas obeyed. Axel, along with a few other people, clapped after his previous action.

"What the?"

"Congratulations," the pyromaniac said. "You _dropped the beet_." He slapped his knee. Then Vanitas slapped his face.

"You're not funny," he said with a straight face. He started walking away, in the direction of the ice cream aisle. "I want more sea salt ice cream."

"Good, huh?"

Vanitas nodded, "Very goo- Hayner, what are you doing here?" He pointed at the blond, who was currently pushing a cart filled with ingredients.

Hayner open and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say. Axel just stared at him with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Uh, dude? You okay? Hayner?" Vanitas asked, waving a hand in front of his housemate's face.

"Wh-who's Hayner?" he said that in a higher pitch, turning away. "I'm... I'm..." He looked around the place.

Ice cream.

"I'm..." he was starting to sweat.

_Ice cream._

"You're...?" Vanitas urged.

_Ice. Cream._

"Ben Enjerry."

Silence.

The black-haired boy twitched, "Your name is Ben Enjerry?"

"Yes," he laughed nervously. "...Goodbye."

He sprinted away with the shopping cart, leaving the two by themselves.

"What was th-"

"I don't even know."

* * *

Kairi checked her red watch.

**6:03pm**

She took a walk around the first floor of the 8 Peak Summer Penthouse. The living room was decorated with bright-colored balloons; blue, red, yellow, orange, purple and pink, the latter of the six because Hayner insisted they absolutely have that color. A candy apple red banner hung above the living room, and charcoal black letters wrote **HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANITASS!**

She raised an eyebrow, "Hayner, his name only has one _s_."

"Huh? Oh, yeah I know," he replied smugly.

"Then why'd you add two?"

"Cause he's an ass-"

_Slap!_

"OKAY, I'LL ERASE IT."

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANITAS!**

"Much better," she complimented, smiling.

She walked out of the living room, and into the dining room. Food made by the residents of the house covered the rectangular, mahogany table. There were meals, snacks and desserts; most of which were the birthday boy's favorites, as reported by Axel. The boy's cake was sitting on top of the kitchen counter, covered in white frosting, and with candles already standing on top of it. The words "Happy Birthday!" were written on it in red frosting. They looked a bit sloppy, thanks to Sora's clumsy hand, but they were still readable, thankfully.

She stalked up the stairs, two by two, and into the extra guest room, where all the boys who helped out were resting. Roxas and Ventus were both lying on the bed; the former on his back and the latter on his stomach, Riku was sitting Indian-style on the floor and covered in flour, Hayner was lying on the floor with his hands behind his head and legs crossed, and finally, Sora was standing with his back against the wall, arms behind his back, and the pink frilly apron still tied around his waist.

"You guys were great, man. Good job!" she exclaimed, grinning. She checked her phone for any new messages from the pyro, and indeed found one.

_LRRH, we're taking the long way home, so we'll be back by around six forty or something._

She checked the time; they would be back in twenty minutes. She ran over to the window and searched for a delivery truck, but no vehicle was present in the streets.

"Sora," she called out, turning to the brunet. "What time is the piano supposed to get here?"

He checked his yellow watch, "...Twenty minutes ago."

"Well shit."

"What if it arrives at the same time as Axel and Vanitas?"

She wrote down a message on her smart phone and sent it to Axel.

_Can you keep him busy until seven?_

Seconds later, she received a reply.

_If I do, only one of us will be getting home... and it won't be me._

"We're just gonna have to deal with that then," she told them. "Well, come on guys, get your party hats ready, they'll be here soon."

* * *

"Finally," Vanitas groaned as he walked over to the front porch. "I can't wait to get some sleep."

"It's only six thirty five," Axel said.

"I know," was his reply. "Got nothing better to do."

He grabbed the doorknob, twisted it, pushed it open...

_Pop! Pop! Smash! "Oh shit!"_

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VANITAS!"

Vanitas' eyes widened. Confetti of all sorts of colors snowed above all of them, and through them, the birthday boy saw everyone's grinning faces. On the floor were the fallen confetti, balloons and a broken vase, presumably the _Smash! _sound he heard earlier. His housemates all wore party hates and either held a kazoo or a party popper.

He looked as though he was going to cry as each one of them as they all sang him "happy birthday".

It had been years since the last time he celebrated it with friends.

"You idiots..." he said. "You didn't have to do all this..."

"But we wanted to!" Sora exclaimed with his usual Sora-smile.

"Come on, the food's gonna get cold!" Kairi exclaimed as she grabbed his arm and dragged him into the dining room. His favorite foods were spread all over the table, which surprised him greatly.

"How did you...?" the black-haired boy began.

"Me," Axel said proudly, pointing a finger at his face.

"Oh... that explains the Little Red Riding Hood thing and the McFlurry's."

"What McFlurry's?"

"Nevermind."

He sat at the very end of the table, and everyone else took their seats. The moment they all sat down, they dug in, savoring Kairi, Sora and the twins' cooking, and Riku's baking. Axel and Hayner both told funny stories and made a bunch of hilarious, albeit immature, jokes. Everyone laughed at them, except for the birthday celebrant himself, who decided to keep a calm composure.

Kairi checked the time, then nudged Sora, who was next to her. She whispered, "Where's the piano?"

"I have no idea," he whispered back. "It should've arrived here an hour ago!"

"Augh..." she massaged her temples. "Well everyone, how about some cake?"

They all cheered.

"I'll go get it!" Axel exclaimed. "I wanna light up the candles!"

He ran into the kitchen before anyone can object. When he found the cake, he lit it up and yelled into the dining room for everyone to start singing. They obeyed and watched as Axel walked in holding the chocolate, lit-up birthday cake.

However, while making his way to the table, he tripped over something and fell on the floor, landing face-slat on Riku's hard work. They all stared at the redhead with wide eyes, except for Riku, who looked like he was going to cry.

Suddenly, they heard laughing.

Vanitas laughing.

The rest looked up at him with eyes wider than their plates. But they all soon joined in, and soon enough, they were all laughing together.

_Ding dong!_

"I THINK THAT'S IT!" the ex-couple, Sora and Kairi, exclaimed as they rushed to the front door.

Moments later, after a bunch of _thud_'s and _bam_'s, the brunet and the redhead called for everyone to come into the living room. Their housemates did as they were told and walked in, only to find a beautiful, pearly white piano sitting in the middle of the room.

"Happy birthday, dimwit," Kairi said in a friendly manner, smiling.

Vanitas walked over to the piano with a shocked expression on his face. He let his fingers slide across the instrument's keys, playing a couple of notes to listen to it sing.

"Guys..." he looked up at each one of them. They all wore smiles on their faces. "Thank you."

And for the first time in forever...

He smiled.

"WOAH WOAH WOAH. HOLD UP," Kairi shrieked girlishly. "YOU'RE SO CUTE WHEN YOU SMILE."

All seven boys looked at her weirdly.

_Oh..._ "...Is what Namine would say if she were here right now," she laughed nervously. Epic fail.

"You're a weird kid, Kaito," Vanitas said as he ruffled her hair. "Thanks for the piano."

She sighed in relief. She really had to work on controlling herself.

"Guys, holy shit," Axel said, grabbing everyone's attention. He ran over to the instrument and lifted up his index finger. "She wants the-" He pushed the D note.

_Slap!_

* * *

It was about one in the morning. Everyone in the penthouse was fast asleep, except for two: Axel Fujiwara and Kairi Sakashita. The former was walking around the house, unable to fall asleep because he was still excited even hours after the little party, and the latter was currently taking a shower.

"Thank goodness I have a shower in my room," Kairi said, sighing in relief. She always took her shower very late at night so that no one would walk in on her. She threw her pyjamas on the bed and brought with her a white linen towel into the bathroom. She shut the door behind her, locked it, then turned on the shower.

Axel was about to make his way downstairs to eat some of leftovers, until he heard a noise coming from Kairi's- or in his point of vue- Kaito's room. He walked over to it and stuck an ear against the door.

"Why's he taking a shower this late?" he asked. "And no fair, why does _he _get this room? I want my own bathroom, too."

He took his ear off the door and just stood there, wondering why Kaito didn't want any of them to enter his room.

"_Think of it as the West Wing."_

"_What's in the West Wi-"_

"_It's forbidden."_

"I wonder what he's hiding that's so _top secret_," Axel said out loud.

He then had an idea.

He looked left, then right, then behind him. He stuck his ear on the door again to see if Kaito was still showering, and he was indeed. The redhead reached for the doorknob and twisted it slightly.

"It's unlocked!" he silently screamed. He looked around one last time to make sure no one was around, then he opened the door and entered the so-called _West Wing_, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

Axel looked around the room. It looked pretty normal. Games on the floor, consoles connected to the tv, laptop on the desk, pajamas on the bed, pads on the nightstand-

He froze.

_Pads_ on the nightstand?

He walked over to the _girl thing_ and it was, indeed, a pad. Yes, _that_ pad, that blood-sucking object a female shoves up her vajayjay when Aunt Flow comes to town. Why the _frick _would Kaito have this?

He opened up a drawer and found a box full of those sanitary napkins. Not only that; he also found a breast binder, a cloth thing that flattened breasts.

Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open. Kairi emerged, hair still wet, and only with a towel on. She looked up and blanched. The two redheads stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

"You're a... y-you're a..." Axel stuttered, unable to finish his sentence.

_Oh shit._

* * *

**A/N: **This was so much fun to write omg. Hope you liked the seventh installment of Lucky Number Seven!

Well, today was my last day of high school. I'm getting my diploma in exactly five days, and prom is in seven. I'm scared I trip on my way to the stage LOL oh gosh. I think I'd die of embarrassment if I did. I'm pretty excited for prom cause first of all, I get to spend a whole night with my best friends, and second of all, I get to wear my dress! It kinda looks like Elsa's from Frozen. :D I'm gonna look so hot (hah I wish).

It's so weird to think about though. I swear it was the first day of high school yesterday. Man, time flies...

Anyways, thanks to all those who reviewed last chapter and the ones before! Please leave another one! :)


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